Fewer Hospitalizations
Telemonitoring puts technology to work improving the lives of Pathways’ heart failure patients. By catching problems earlier, it reduces hospitalizations.
Home Health nurses don’t visit daily, so telemonitoring gives Pathways a way to assess the patient 7 days a week, from our office.
The easy-to-use unit can give us the patient’s:
- Weight
- Blood pressure
- Heart rate
- Oxygen saturation
When a patient touches any button on the small unit, a friendly voice talks them through each step of the health check. Patients also receive the data, giving feedback.
The information is sent automatically to a nurse via telephone: there is no phone charge to the patient.
Nurses monitor the health information daily, call the patient if necessary, and make home visits when indicated.
Pathways Telemonitoring Program Criteria
- Patient has heart failure
- Patient or caregiver can understand and follow instructions, and are physically able to use the unit
- Patient or caregiver are open to telemonitoring technology
- Patient does not have an infectious disease (i.e. TB, MRSA, varicella zoster, herpes zoster)
This article was originally published in Pathways Physician & Health Professional Bulletin - Issue 26. To download this issue in PDF format, or past issues, visit our newsletter archives online at www.pathwayshealth.org/publications.
Four Culprits
Just four drugs and drug classes cause two thirds of the 100,000 annual emergency room visits for drug reactions in the elderly, according to recent research. At the top of the list is warfarin (also known as Coumadin); it alone accounted for one third of the visits. The other categories are insulins, oral hypoglycemic agents and oral antiplatelet medications.
With antiplatelet or blood thinning drugs, bleeding was the main problem. For insulin and other diabetes medications, about two-thirds of cases involved changes in mental status such as confusion, loss of consciousness or seizures.
Some of the common denominators in these drugs are that: they are commonly prescribed; there is a fine line between the therapeutic dose and a dangerous one; and they can all be difficult to use. The researchers made note that none of the medications that were culprits were drugs that were labeled “high risk” for older adults, although some over-the-counter drugs like Benedryl are.
“Of the thousands of medications available to older patients, a small group of blood thinners and diabetes medications caused a high proportion of emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events among elderly Americans,” said lead study author Dr. Daniel Budnitz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“We weren’t so surprised at the particular drugs that were involved,” Budnitz said. “But we were surprised how many of the emergency hospitalizations were due to such a relatively small number of these drugs.”
It is estimated that hospitalizations for accidental overdoses and adverse side effects are likely to increase as Americans live longer and the senior population grows. Currently 40% of people older than 65 take five to nine medications; 18% take 10 or more.
Researchers at CDC published the study in the Nov. 24, 2011 New England Journal of Medicine.
