Telemonitoring at Work in the Netherlands

Research at the Scheper Hospital in the Netherlands shows that telemonitoring of chronic heart failure gives great improvements in several areas. The research took two years and included more than one hundred patients with an impaired cardiac pump function.

The care process for these patients was very differently planned through telemonitoring or remote care. The patients did daily monitoring of their weight, blood pressure and heart rate and sent these vital signs to the heart failure clinic. Through these daily monitoring, preventive and proactive actions were taken by the care professionals. This resulted in:

a decrease in the number of admissions per patient by 26 percent;
a decrease in the total number of admissions with 64 percent;
a reduced number of outpatient visits with 39 percent;
a lower average number of hospital days: a decline of 87 percent!

This is a confirmation that telemedicine is effective. It also shows the possibilities of a different care model like remote care monitoring. The financial results will be published in an analysis next year. The portfolio of Vitaphone is even more extensive: we additionally offer tele-ECG monitoring. The ECG will directly be sent with or without a report to the treating physician. This means that the care professional already can act even when there are no actual symptoms or problems yet.

I’d like to close this post with a quote from the cardiologist, Michiel Nagelsmit: “The deployment of e-health makes it possible for us to provide care to a larger number of patients with chronic heart failure in the same available time.”

Author: Indy Kavelaars

Source: Scheper Ziekenhuis