Page 16 Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring RPM for Long Termand Post Acute Care A Primer and Provider Selection Guide 2013

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4.3 Post-Acute Patient Stabilization receive routine check-ups and treatment services
remotely. 17
To help with post-acute patient stabilization,
telehealth and RPM is used for daily monitoring In addition to improved access, telemedicine, tele-
of disease conditions to detect exacerbation. In health and RPM offer potential cost reductions for
theory, telehealth and RPM can keep eyes and ears patients, as well as health care professionals (e.g.,
on patients every day to track conditions; this can mileage for home health nurses) because of the
be done through biometric data, specific check-in ability to target visits as needed; this is especially
data, and environmental sensors (if/when avail- helpful in rural areas, for home bound patients, or
able). those who don’t have easy access to transportation.

Telehealth and RPM allow for recognition of key
indicators that put the individual at risk for read- 4.5 Specific Teleconsult
mission, including medication non-adherence,
and provides a means for communication with and The standard face-to-face method for the delivery
between multiple care providers (e.g., primary care of medical care is the preferred means of evaluation
physician, hospitalist, home and community-based and treatment for most health care professionals.
care provider) for follow-up. Care providers can Nevertheless, there are times when this type of in-
also use telehealth and RPM to provide remind- teraction may not be necessary or possible. In these
ers for treatment and coordinate care with other circumstances, “remote consultation” has served as
providers who may provide supportive services to an alternative in recent years.
the individual. For the scope of this discussion, the use of the

Telehealth and RPM have a much larger penetra- term remote consultation will refer to all methods
tion in post-acute care as compared to ambulatory (not restricted to the use of the Internet, but also
care patients as the majority of patients are only to include traditional technologies of information
considered for home monitoring following hospital transfer such as mail or facsimile) where:
discharge to prevent readmission. In the U.S., for 1. There is an exchange of medical information.
example, 140,000 post-acute patients were estimat-
ed to have been monitored by telehealth in 2012, as 2. A formal report is issued.
compared to 80,000 ambulatory patients. 16
3. A fee is charged for the consultative service.
4.4 Long-Distance Routine Check-Ups/ There are several reasons that a remote consultation
Treatment may be requested. It may be initiated by the patient
(or patient’s family), a clinician in an LTPAC set-
Telemedicine, telehealth and RPM improve access ting, a primary care doctor seeking another opinion
to health care and benefits individuals who live in for their patient, or by a specialist requesting ad-
rural areas, are home-bound or have obstacles to ditional expert assistance. In these select instances,
accessing traditional delivery of health services to the use of remote consultation is a “win-win-win-

Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring for Long-Term and Post-Acute Care:
A Primer and Provider Selection Guide 2013