Alston Healthcare, one of the Department of Health’s 26 social enterprise pathfinder projects, is working on a telehealth project.
The Cumbrian company aims to provide community health services, including e-health services, across a rural area, with particular focus on older people.
In 2006/07, it received £15,500 revenue and £5,000 capital from the Social Enterprise Unit and set about providing a broadband infrastructure that staff from the local hospital and primary care trust could use when visiting patients at home.
It is now planning a three phase telehealth project. Phase one, a pilot study, will take place from January to March next year and focus on two or three rural areas. Further phases will be subject to additional funding.
The pilot will put a range of telehealth monitoring equipment into homes to enable people with chronic conditions to monitor their conditions, with the aim of reducing hospital admissions and long-stays, and promoting health and reducing anxiety. Data will be sent to clinical staff over the broadband infrastructure set up last year.
Alston Healthcare has also started implementing a video communication system over which patients can be assessed remotely by nurses and doctors. The first video link will be between Alston and Penrith hospitals, but the idea will be extended after an initial trial.
The video links could be used for minor injuries and illness, dermatology problems, and patient reviews and consultations when the patient might otherwise have to travel a considerable distance.
Alston Healthcare’s first project was to give laptops to nurses so they could get web access to records and other information. A year ago, Daniel Heery, project manager for Alston Healthcare, told EHI Primary Care that the move had halved unnecessary patient admissions and reduced by a third the need for GPs to make home visits.
Alston Healthcare wants to make using the web for health the norm in the town and to work with the National Programme for IT in the NHS to get some of its projects into the area.
Link