In the wake of the pandemic, telehealth quickly became an integral part of care delivery by increasing access to care. This proved to be just as effective as in-person care for many diagnoses, especially with supportive legislation providing waivers and reimbursement changes.

Ricky Foor, Givens Communities Vice President of Technology, recently collaborated on an article for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, from which this excerpt is drawn. Under the telehealth umbrella, the use of remote patient monitoring technology, known as RPM, has shown tremendous value in managing the care of patients who reside outside the hospital.

In its simplest form, RPM involves the use of electronic monitoring devices to record objective data like heart rate, blood pressure and subjective data like symptoms for a patient typically at home or in a long-term care facility. Review is by a provider or clinical team at another location. These devices rely on the Internet to communicate information to clinical portals or to a provider’s electronic health record, and are typically monitored by a clinical triage team.

RPM use is usually offered in several spheres of care to provide a more comprehensive care management monitoring program for patients who reside outside of an acute care setting. RPM involves the reporting, collection, transmission and evaluation of patient health data through electronic devices, such as wearables, like watches, strap monitors, glucose monitors; mobile devices; Smartphone apps; and Internet-enabled computers.

The most common conditions that benefit from RPM include persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease.

The objective health data set that is most commonly captured are vital signs: body weight, heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, oxygen level and respiratory rate. Additional variables commonly measured are oxygen saturation and blood glucose, and pain level, and physical activity.