From the September 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

In addition to satisfying patient desire for more in-home care, connective care platforms benefit the payer and provider organizations that utilize these solutions. By having real-time insights into a patient's health, decisions can be made, and treatment can be administered without requiring return trips to the hospital or clinic. This has a meaningful impact on the clinical side of the equation, as well as on the bottom line, reducing the number of costly readmissions or visits to the emergency room. According to KLAS Research, one-fourth of healthcare organizations say remote patient monitoring reduces emergency room visits and hospital readmissions, while 38% say the technology results in fewer inpatient admissions.

In the absence of available in-person care in the home, technology can fill the gaps to ensure that treatment isn't being sacrificed. Vitals are monitored and staff can take a more proactive approach to care so that patients’ conditions do not deteriorate simply because they are not at brick-and-mortar facilities.


Following are three ways that connective care technology can mitigate the impact of falls by seniors:

Assessing risk: Patients sometimes contact payers’ and providers’ call centers to report that they need lift assistance or have fallen out of their wheelchair. These touchpoints represent opportunities for healthcare organizations to gather data points that provide further detail into patients’ conditions, and whether they need additional interventions, such as a referral to a case manager. Connective care systems deliver additional data points, such as gait speed and the time it takes to get out of a wheelchair, that can be used to assess patient risk for future falls.

Prescribing interventions: Data gathered through connective care systems can be routed to the appropriate provider – whether a physical therapist, specialist, nurse practitioner or primary care physician – to inform them of changes to patients’ conditions that may require further interventions. For example, a patient experiencing high blood pressure may have fallen when her blood pressure spikes, prompting her provider to increase her medication dosage. Detection before an event occurs is the best form of prevention.

Connecting patients to additional services: While connective care solutions such as RPM and PERS can make a big difference in falls prevention, no one technology or approach will solve the problem alone. Sensors installed around seniors’ homes as part of these solutions may alert providers to the need for additional services or resources in patients’ homes, such as grab bars in bathrooms or on stairways.

September 2022 Magazine

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