Available in Lexington and Richmond areas
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 15, 2015) — Baptist Health Home Care, in concert with Baptist Health Lexington and Baptist Health Richmond, today launched an interactive telehealth program that links at-home heart failure patients with a nurse who offers health education.
Monitoring is performed with in-home equipment including weighing scales, a blood pressure cuff and pulse oximetry to measure oxygen levels in the blood. Those readings are taken daily and transmitted to a central monitoring service via telephone lines or an internal cellular modem. If any of the readings are cause for concern, a home health nurse is alerted to contact the patient.
Detecting symptom changes is one goal of the program, said Regene’ Collier, director of Home Care with Baptist Health Home Care in Lexington. “We watch for subtle signs that they (the patients) are getting into trouble. The nurse can then quickly intervene, thereby preventing the need for the patient to go to the Emergency Department or to be hospitalized.”
Rebecca Cartright, state executive director for Baptist Health Home Care, said another objective is to provide professional monitoring while patients remain in their homes. She said, “I think this program will give patients a sense of security, knowing that someone is looking at their vital signs daily.”
Baptist Health Home Care plans to extend telehealth services to the Louisville and La Grange communities.
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