Implementing a home telemonitoring program

Abstract

In the current healthcare arena, it is imperative that home healthcare agencies seek to reduce costs and produce positive outcomes from the care they give. Telemonitoring offers the ability to monitor closely the daily status of the patients that home healthcare agencies serve, to provide best practice care, and to produce positive outcomes from that care. This article presents the experience of how 1 hospital-based agency implemented a home telemonitoring program and describes the lessons learned throughout the process. The current healthcare arena demands cost reduction and improved patient care outcomes from home healthcare agencies (HHAs). The direction that each HHA chooses to take to answer these demands will set the stage for their future. This article describes the steps needed to implement a telemonitoring program. The description is based on how 1 HHA chose its course of action and set it in motion and shows what was learned throughout the process.