Why Nursing Homes Need Telemedicine

Nursing home patients are the ones who need telemedicine the most. Post-acute nursing home patients who don’t see a physician or practised nurse are twice as likely to be readmitted or die within 30 days. Residents have to wait a long time to get admitted to a doctor. On average, patients wait 3.2 days to see a physician. In rural areas, that number jumps to 8.1 days. Many health issues can be treated in the nursing home if detected early. Manually taking vital signs can take 4 minutes and documenting those readings can take an extra 12 minutes. Manually taking vital signs also means delayed entries, illegible handwriting, data entries errors, and more.

Having access to a wireless monitor can make the process of seeing a physician less than a minute long. In addition, using telehealth eliminates human error. Using wireless monitors can help nurses collect and document reading in less than 2 minutes. Wireless monitors also can save money. For a 100 bed hospital, wireless monitors can reduce the annual costs by $100,000. Nurses can spend more time with patients and less time documenting, and patients get more attention, reducing readmissions.

Via TapestryHealth.com