Nottingham City PCT has agreed to mainstream telehealth with the purchase of new monitors from specialists Tunstall, following a successful year-long pilot.
The PCT will use Tunstall’s Genesis DM monitors to monitor around 800 people each year with long-term conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure.
The decision to mainstream telehealth across the city follows a successful 12-month pilot in 2007, which saw a reduction in hospital admissions, GP visits and matron and community nurse home visits, enabling primary and secondary care teams in Nottingham to make the best possible use of healthcare resources.
During the pilot a community matron case managed the patients in order to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. A specialist team made up of occupational therapists, nurses and physiotherapists from primary care are currently working together with secondary care respiratory nurses to manage patients with more complex needs.
Sally Parker, head of adult services for Nottingham City PCT said: “Nottingham is the seventh most deprived city in the country. Mainstreaming telehealth and making it an integral part of our care model will radically change the way patients are cared for in the community.
“Telehealth allows patients with chronic conditions to benefit from continuous monitoring whilst respecting their privacy, and crucially it educates them to be more aware of their own symptoms and to proactively manage them – which is a vital step in reducing the burden on healthcare providers.”
Examples of the success of the pilot include one patient, who has heart failure and a cardioverter defibrillator implant, and used the monitor to manage her weight. An increase in weight indicated by the equipment meant the community matron was able to change the patient’s medication.
Following a prescription of diuretics to counter fluid retention, which was causing the weight gain, the patient was prevented from being admitted to hospital.
Once operational, the monitors will be tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual patient ensuring that vital signs are continuously measured.
The monitors will allow patients to measure their own weight, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, blood pressure and glucose levels, and also answer a series of questions to further determine their current condition.
Community matrons will also be able to programme the monitor to ask the patient a set of medical questions specific to their condition, which can then be sent to clinicians aiding diagnosis of the status of the patient’s condition.
The monitor will automatically transmit data to a community nurse to assess the information and provide medical intervention if needed. If necessary they will then refer the patient to their GP or will have them immediately transferred to hospital for emergency care.
Tunstall say the monitors will also be compatible with NHS IT systems and, once integration is completed, patient data will be more visible and can be accessed and acted upon more easily and effectively within the PCT, facilitating an easier migration of records, as GPs will automatically receive a record of their patients’ data.
Matt Marshall, director of health at Tunstall said: “Telehealth represents a clear win-win for patients and PCT. Being able to remotely triage patients helps staff prioritise visits, meaning those patients experiencing a critical change in their health receive more timely medical intervention. This landmark telehealth deployment has the potential to change the lives of people with long-term conditions in Nottingham for the better.”
With around 22,000 hospital admissions per year in Nottingham linked to long-term conditions – 40% of all hospital activity – the PCT hope that mainstreaming telehealth will continue to substantially reduce hospital admissions and GP visits.
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