Remote monitors can be lifesavers for patients

Partners HealthCare has placed American TeleCare Monitoring Stations in hundreds of homes and cut hospital re-admissions for its heart-failure patients by 33 percent. In Brooklyn, N.Y., Coney Island Hospital gave similar devices to 69 asthmatic kids who had been hospitalized at least once a month during the previous winter, and during the next winter all but one avoided the hospital completely. Across the United States, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been testing these appliances in the homes of patients with diabetes and lung diseases as well as heart failure; it has found a 35 percent reduction in re-admissions and a 60 percent drop in emergency visits. “Plus we get 90 percent patient satisfaction ratings,” says physician Adam Darkins, the VA’s chief consultant for care coordination. “That’s why we’ll have these devices in 12,500 homes by the end of this year.”

One of the best descriptions in a while of the benefits of telehealth devices at home.