News
Nottingham PCT launches large-scale telemonitoring of chronic
disease patients
26 March 2008
Nottingham City Primary Care Trust (PCT) has launched a large-scale
deployment of telehealth solutions, to monitor people with long-term
conditions in their own homes, deliver timely, preventative care and
improve their quality of life.
Nottingham has around 22,000 hospital admissions per year linked to
long-term conditions — 40% of all hospital activity. The aim of the
telehealth deployment is to reduce hospital admissions and GP visits.
The PCT will use Genesis DM monitors from Tunstall to monitor around
800 people each year with long-term conditions such as chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure. This
approach supports independent living, promotes patient self-management
and reduces the need for repeat hospital admissions.
The deployment follows a successful 12-month pilot in 2007, which saw
a reduction in hospital admissions, GP visits and matron and community
nurse home visits.
Sally Parker, head of adult services for Nottingham City PCT said:
“Nottingham is the seventh most deprived city in the country.
Mainstreaming telehealth and making it an integral part of our care
model will radically change the way patients are cared for in the
community. Telehealth allows patients with chronic conditions to benefit
from continuous monitoring whilst respecting their privacy, and
crucially it educates them to be more aware of their own symptoms and to
proactively manage them — which is a vital step in reducing the burden
on healthcare providers.”
Matt Marshall, Director of Health of Tunstall said: “Telehealth
represents a clear win-win for patients and PCT. Being able to remotely
triage patients helps staff prioritise visits, meaning those patients
experiencing a critical change in their health receive more timely
medical intervention.”
The monitoring can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the
individual patient. As well as using the monitor to measure vital signs,
the community matron will be able to programme the monitor to ask the
patient a set of medical questions specific to their condition; this
helps clinicians further determine the status of their patient’s
condition.
The monitor will also be compatible with NHS IT systems, and once
integration is completed patient data will be available within the PCT,
facilitating an easier migration of records, as GPs will automatically
receive a record of their patients’ measured data.
During the pilot a community matron case managed the patients to
prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. A specialist team made up of
occupational therapists, nurses and physiotherapists from primary care
are currently working together with secondary care respiratory nurses to
manage patients with more complex needs. Supported by telehealth this
will facilitate their timely discharge from hospital, freeing up
valuable secondary care resources to redeploy to other key healthcare
areas.
The monitors allow patients to measure their own weight, heart rate,
blood oxygen levels, blood pressure and glucose levels, and also answer
a series of questions to further determine their current condition. It
then transmits the data to a community nurse to assess the information
and provide medical intervention if needed. If necessary they will then
refer the patient to their GP or will have them immediately transferred
to hospital for emergency care.
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