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CMW News: Telehealth program cares for elderly patients

Case Management Weekly, October 8, 2008

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Overcrowded emergency rooms, an increasing elderly population, and a decreasing number of geriatricians leave healthcare institutions looking for creative, safe, and cost-effective ways to care for older patients.

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New York is using a unique approach to keep elderly patients out of the emergency room and out of nursing homes. It’s called the Telehealth program, and it provides care and monitoring for patients within the comfort of their own living rooms.

Each patient is given a video monitor, a high-resolution camera, a blood pressure machine, a stethoscope, a pulse oximeter, and a digital scale to aid them in reporting their vital signs to nurse case managers miles away.  Patients are taught to do a self-assessment, and the nurse case manager dials them on a video phone to check in one to three times per week. If the patient seems to be experiencing problems, the case manager will contact the patient’s doctor to follow up.

The Telehealth program is four years old, and will keep expanding in the future, according to Newsday. North Shore-LIJ is adding 67 new machines to the program this year.

Source: Newsday.com

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