Coordinated Care Management

July 17, 2012

Veterans to Start Receiving 'Electronic House Calls'



They’re calling it an “electronic house call,” but some veterans might call it a way to stay healthy and feel cared for at home, even without a doctor physically by their sides.

A group of veterans have been successfully monitored and cared for remotely through Authentidate's Electronic House Call (EHC) vital signs monitoring device and web service, and now – having successfully completed the test-in phases – it will be coming to other Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities throughout the country, according to a press release.

Authentidate Holding Corp, a provider of secure web-based software applications and telehealth products and services for healthcare organizations, today announced that the VA has given its approval for VA facilities to order and use the EHC solution.

VA facilities can use the EHC solution to remotely monitor patients and improve patient care for veterans in its national Care Coordination Home Telehealth program. As a new vendor to the VA, Authentidate was required to test its solution in a limited deployment before a national rollout to ensure VA implementation criteria was met.

Clinicians use the EHC solution “to remotely monitor their patients' vital signs and gather qualitative information about their patients' health to supplement in-person visits and help improve patient compliance with their care plans,” according to the press release. After reviewing their patients' remote monitoring session results using Authentidate's web-based application, they can remotely manage or adjust their patients' care plans, medication reminders and related information.

Clinicians can also use the application to educate and provide information about their diseases to patients in real-time through the EHC solution, the press release reports.    

A recent study found that telehealth is associated with lower mortality and emergency admission rates. 

Studies have also found that patients like it, and even though it has resulted, in some cases, in higher hospital admissions, the thinking is that the solution found healthcare problems that might have been missed in other ways.     

Another study found that telemedicinese of telemedicine reduced ICU mortality by 20% and shortened the average length of stay in the ICU by 1.26 days, Lance Brendan Young, PhD, of the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and colleagues reported in the March 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.




Edited by Allison Boccamazzo
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]