News
Case Study: Living Community of St. Joseph
Preventing Major Health Events in Independent Living Communities
The Living Community of St. Joseph is a premier retirement community offering a full continuum of exceptional living for seniors, who want to enjoy their highest level of health while making the most of their retirement. St. Joseph’s is part of the Benedictine Health System (BHS), a Catholic, mission-directed, values-based health care system that owns and/or manages about 40 long-term care facilities of various types, including nursing homes, assisted living and independent senior housing options in seven states.
The Situation
St. Joseph’s offers a successful wellness approach for its residents, which includes fitness and wellness programs as well as bi-monthly wellness checks for its residents. However, the independent living facility does not have in-house health care. So in 2009, St. Joseph’s implemented the Connections365 kiosk as a daily extension of its wellness programs.
The Connections365 kiosk is a multi-user telehealth device that uses the latest technologies to monitor and help maintain the health of each enrolled resident, while providing a direct connection to a nurse via a built-in telephone. The kiosk monitors each enrolled resident's wellness information by gathering valuable information about health and vital signs, and delivering it to the C365 Health Monitoring Team, which can then recognize a change in a resident’s condition and take appropriate action
“Telemedicine and telehealth are becoming more and more important to our health care system as time goes on, so having the C365 kiosk is absolutely important in our facility, especially in our independent living community where we are not providing medical oversight with a nurse on board 24/7,” said Peggy Evans, Assistant Administrator and Director of Residential Services at BHS.
The Results
Every resident of St. Joseph’s has enrolled in the C365 telehealth program and uses the kiosk daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on their state of health. Evans noted that the kiosk has empowered residents to be active participants in their health. And it gives the residents’ family members peace of mind knowing their parents have direct access with a nurse if they need it. But most importantly, it can and has prevented serious health events
For one resident in particular, the C365 kiosk discovered a pattern of high blood pressure that if not taken care of could have lead serious health consequences. One of the C365 Health Monitoring Team nurses detected his high blood pressure ratings and ensured that he seek the care of a medical professional.
“With the C365 kiosk, residents are able to identify changes in their health and make an appointment with their doctors instead of waiting for a crisis or health issue that could have been prevented,” Evans explained.
Because the C365 telehealth system intervened on what could have required him to move to an assisted living facility, the resident is able to continue living in the St. Joseph’s community. He still uses the kiosk on a daily basis and takes the print out of his daily blood pressure levels to his physician.
Care Coordination/Home Telehealth: The Systematic Implementation of Health Informatics, Home Telehealth, and Disease Management to Support the Care of Veteran Patients with Chronic Conditions
Between July 2003 and December 2007, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) introduced a national home telehealth program, Care Coordination/Home Telehealth (CCHT). Its purpose was to coordinate the care of veteran patients with chronic conditions and avoid their unnecessary admission to long-term institutional care. Demographic changes in the veteran population necessitate VHA increase its noninstitutional care (NIC) services 100% above its 2007 level to provide care for 110,000 NIC patients by 2011. By 2011, CCHT will meet 50% of VHA’s anticipated NIC provision. CCHT involves the systematic implementation of health informatics, home telehealth, and disease management technologies. It helps patients live independently at home. Between 2003 and 2007, the census figure (point prevalence) for VHA CCHT patients increased from 2,000 to 31,570 (1,500% growth). CCHT is now a routine NIC service provided by VHA to support veteran patients with chronic conditions as they age. CCHT patients are predominantly male (95%) and aged 65 years or older. Strict criteria determine patient eligibility for enrollment into the program and VHA internally assesses how well its CCHT programs meet standardized clinical, technology, and managerial requirements. VHA has trained 5,000 staff to provide CCHT. Routine analysis of data obtained for quality and performance purposes from a cohort of 17,025 CCHT patients shows the benefits of a 25% reduction in numbers of bed days of care, 19% reduction in numbers of hospital admissions, and mean satisfaction score rating of 86% after enrolment into the program. The cost of CCHT is $1,600 per patient per annum, substantially less than other NIC programs and nursing home care. VHA’s experi ence is that an enterprise-wide home telehealth implementation is an appropriate and cost-effective way of managing chronic care patients in both urban and rural settings.
