How Remote Patient Monitoring Is Changing Coordinated Care

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has been a welcome innovation for coordinated care, providing benefits such as increased access to medical services for patients who can’t reach typical clinical settings, more overall flexibility, and lower costs for clinicians. 

What Is RPM?

RPM, or remote patient monitoring, comes from technologies that allow clinicians to provide medical services to those unable to access traditional clinical settings like hospitals. These technologies are also commonly categorized as telemedicine. 

The three main types of telemedicine are store-and-forward, remote monitoring, and real-time interactive services. Clinicians use the store-and-forward technique to collect and store patient data and remote monitoring to observe their patient’s status. Real-time interactive services allow patients to speak to their clinicians live through an accessible video chat or phone call.

How RPM Benefits Patients

With RPM, clinical care is more accessible and convenient, no matter where the patient may be living. Reaching a provider can be incredibly stressful for both patients and their loved ones. Providing an alternative eliminates the many barriers that have kept patients everywhere from accessing the care they require.

RPM also makes healthcare more affordable. Telemedicine can eliminate the sometimes devastating costs associated with transportation and hospital stays. This is incredibly crucial for patients living in rural areas and other medically underserved and disadvantaged areas. Finally, RPM allows patients to take a much more active and engaged role in their clinical care, all through modern, easy-to-use technologies!

RPM Changes for Clinicians 

RPM technologies lower the risk of clinician burnout by helping them reach more clients conveniently, while also reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Though some clinicians may be concerned about not being able to meet with patients in person, RPM still allows them to develop crucial doctor-patient relationships. RPM provides the time and attention that patients need, while giving clinicians more freedom to attend to their other patients.

The Overall Results of RPM

Several statistics reveal the incredible value of RPM on the healthcare system, especially during these stressful and trying times. Studies show that the inclusion of RPM technologies has resulted in 38% fewer hospital admissions, 31% fewer re-admissions, more patient engagement in their own healthcare, and higher job satisfaction for healthcare providers.

The inclusion of telemedicine has allowed for improved efficiency for clinicians and accessibility for patients. Though these technologies should not be expected to replace traditional care methods, they function as an amazing support service for some of our most vulnerable loved ones.