Remote patient monitoring in a telehealth app has been one of the most revolutionary technological innovations in the healthcare industry. This novel concept seemed quite promising especially for patients with chronic conditions, elderly people, patients residing in remote locations, and the ones who are unable to travel often. However, a majority of the healthcare service providers were not so keen to adopt this approach as telehealth implementation with remote monitoring seemed to be financially non-viable. But the year 2020 has changed this scene completely and marked a huge transformation in the healthcare sector. This happened as the social-distancing protocol on account of Covid19 has forced the healthcare providers as well as patients to resort to online consultation and thereby adopt this approach of remote monitoring in their telehealth solutions. Also, the most significant breakthrough was the recent changes in the rules of insurance-reimbursement that boosted this approach all the more. Many State Legislatures and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have considerably increased telehealth reimbursements, including Remote Patient Monitoring, to facilitate remote medical services. Therefore, workable telehealth services were officially implemented in 2020. With this new approach, the demand for healthcare app development has grown all the more.
So, this article discusses how remote patient monitoring services can benefit patients and simultaneously enhance the net profitability of healthcare organizations or private practitioners. But before we dive deeper, let’s take a quick look at remote patient monitoring services.
Remote patient monitoring: The new-age healthcare services
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a subcategory of the telehealth sector that employs smart software tools to track patient information irrespective of their location and transmit the same to the practitioners. This happens via the internet using RPM tools that comprise hardware, software, and a digital connection. Hardware includes wearable devices such as Fitbit, Apple watches, etc. that record healthcare data like pulse, heart rate, blood pressure levels, and many more. RPM tools are also available in the form of devices implanted inside the patients’ bodies like cardioverter-defibrillators syncing with hospital transmitters in case of extreme medical conditions.
Key Benefits of Remote Patient Monitoring
Improved Healthcare Access
Remote patient monitoring allows medicos to reach out to more patients irrespective of their geographical location leading to an increased revenue inflow. Also, the elderly patients and the ones residing in remote locations far away from healthcare facilities can address their medical needs without much hassle.
24X7 Patient Monitoring
These days, people are more prone to suffering from chronic conditions due to an unhealthy lifestyle. Chronic conditions may turn out to be lethal if not monitored regularly. RPM devices have worked wonders in keeping a 24X7 vigil on the patients’ health conditions and detecting early symptoms that may lead to life-threatening conditions. Furthermore, the pre-detection of potential issues helps the doctors to make timely modifications in medication or the course of treatment. This results in lesser deaths due to chronic diseases. Also, the number of hospital readmissions and visits to emergency units can be considerably reduced.
Improved outcomes
RPM solutions provide enhanced levels of health-related knowledge, support, and feedback to physicians as compared to the conventional healthcare models as they connect patients to the service providers instantly and continuously. This ultimately results in improved health outcomes.
Time-saver for practitioners
RPM devices deliver crucial patient information like healthcare anomalies or skipped doses promptly and regularly to their caregivers. Hence the caregivers and the physicians need not be completely preoccupied with the patients all the time. Moreover, these automated solutions administer healthcare tasks accurately, without the need for human intervention. This saves their vital time.
Better Communication
On account of RPM, important healthcare data reaches the doctors in real-time and also helps in effective patient-doctor communication. Proper communication not only gains the trust of patients but also enables doctors to diligently keep track of patient health.
Accurate diagnoses and treatment
Some healthcare conditions are quite complex and even the best practitioners might find them too confusing to diagnose and treat. However, the data gathered by RPM technology eliminates any chances of misdiagnoses and guides doctors through the correct course of treatment.
Self-care awareness
Thanks to telehealth powered RPM solutions, patients gain more control of their treatment regime. The medical data generated by the RPM system alerts the patients for adhering to the prescribed medications and improve self-care awareness, thereby maximizing the results of their healthcare program.
Lesser expenses for patients and reduced administrative burden for care providers
Remote healthcare consultation from the comfort of their homes or offices also helps patients to save time and cost of travel and also conquer certain logistical limitations. Healthcare facilities, too, can save on the burden of maintaining huge spaces and appointing a large number of medical staff.
Safer environment by limiting crowded spaces
If managed well, RPM can limit the in-person hospital visits, unless an emergency situation arises, resulting in a much lesser crowd. This makes the environment of the healthcare facility safer as the chances of the spread of communicable infectious diseases become much lesser.
Final Verdict
This article conveys how Remote Patient Monitoring addresses the multiple challenges encountered by the traditional healthcare system. It also provides a competitive edge to Healthcare Service Providers in the long run. Therefore, most medical facilities have either adopted RPM or intend to offer this service to their patients.
Are you looking for a healthcare app development company or healthcare app developers to architect smart RPM solutions for your business? Reach out to Biz4Solutions, a highly experienced healthcare app development company. Write to us with your project requirement at [email protected].
