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Telehealth, Home Devices Help Increase Bed Capacity in Hospitals

As the COVID-19 virus continues to spread, there is a growing need for remote monitoring of other types of patients. See how senior living centers are implementing this Virtual Exam Room.

Dictum Telehealth
Dictum Health

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread, hospitals throughout the U.S. will be faced with too few beds if nothing is done to improve capacity, according to a study from the Harvard Global Health Institute. Telehealth efforts that move beyond a simple phone or Skype call to the doctor can help everyday patients get the care they need while leaving more beds available for COVID-19 patients—and providing the essential social distancing required to slow the spread of the dangerous virus.

Dictum Health is bringing advanced technologies to bear to improve the patient experience, providing the same kind of care that could be given in a hospital setting. The integration of videoconferencing and the simultaneous streaming of vital signs, cardiopulmonary data, and medical images creates a Virtual Exam Room (VER), enabling remote clinicians to examine patients to assess, diagnose, and recommend treatment.

To see an example of how this technology has been implemented at several senior living centers, see “COVID-19 Prevention at Heritage Senior Living” below.

A Dictum Health home kit enables patients and their caregivers to get the support they need in managing chronic conditions, recovering from surgery, or completing their care plan. With real-time remote patient assessment, the patient’s clinician or care team can respond rapidly to a change in health status.

Care Central Cloud Services enables live updates on the patient’s vital signs, cardiopulmonary status, and other health data. The cloud capabilities also enable a single clinician to monitor more patients at once, through Dictum Health’s patient monitoring and alerts feature. Clinicians would be informed on the health status of patients in real time for timely care intervention. The alert system can notify the care team via an email or text if test data values cross preset boundaries or if the patient is out of testing compliance. Alert configuration is flexible, allowing clinicians to create compliance and test threshold alerts as well as alert levels for each patient.

As the pandemic continues to impact lives daily, PMMI is using its channels to offer insights and reinforce that we are in this together. Listen to the special UnPACKed with PMMI podcast series to learn how PMMI’s members are navigating the COVID-19 crisis.

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