Home-based care, which is gaining favor among providers and patients, encompasses many characteristics. Patients can monitor their vital and other signs needed to help them control their chronic conditions through remote devices in the home. Another trend is home visits by physicians and other healthcare providers.
With devices at home, away from the facility or physician's office, and physicians not at their desks, how will the data that's generated be transferred securely and seamlessly back to the healthcare facility? EMRs and EHRs are part of the equation, as are mobile technology.
You need to have a health IT system set up to electronically receive vital sign data. It's a waste for patients, who may be older and have a more difficult time, to write down their vitals and somehow get it to their physicians. You want to minimize any bottlenecks and potential for errors by having the monitoring devices connected to transfer the data directly to the EMR or EHR.
Mobile devices are great tools for physicians and other caregivers, but the big payoff for physicians is being able to access patient data remotely. It's easier to practice safe medicine remotely if you have the patient's full medical history from the EMR before you.
There are great efficiencies when mobile technology is connected to the EMR system to track the treatment dispensed at the patient's home in real time.
All of the above will drive patient and physician satisfaction because we all want convenience, safety and efficiency at our point of care.
We have a long way to go before we get to this seemingly futuristic scenario, but it's such an attractive proposition that patient and provider should be pushing for that day sooner rather than later.
Photo by jasleen_kaur courtesy of Creative Commons license.
