Home Health Adds Telehealth, Home Infusion to Service Offerings This year, while continuing to serve people living in Henderson, Buncombe, Polk and Transylvania counties, AdventHealth Home Care of Western North Carolina also focused on growing its services to include remote-monitored telehealth, and intermittent infusion needs in the home by December 2021. The new telehealth program focuses on patients with chronic care needs for congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using a system that allows remote monitoring of weight, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and heart rate. The patient is also asked a series of questions that can tell the reviewing clinician whether they are experiencing symptoms that might indicate an exacerbation of their disease. In addition, the system provides preloaded teaching modules and education modalities that are targeted to the diagnosis of the patient. A nurse reviews the patient’s data each weekday, calls the patient to discuss any issues or concerns and then reports any changes to the provider. This allows for interventions to be implemented early, potentially avoiding hospitalizations. The new infusion program, which will be fully implemented in December 2021, will allow providers to order intermittent, low-volume infusion for targeted intervention in the home setting. Intravenous fluids for the purpose of dehydration in homebound patients can be provided on a single-dose basis, preventing extra visits outside of the home that require considerable effort by the patient. In the home, nursing can place the IV, administer the infusion, monitor the patient during and immediately after the infusion and de-access the IV when the infusion is complete.
18
