Best Way to Maximize the Hospital ROI and Minimize the Patient Monitoring Expenses

The utmost aim of a hospital is to provide high-quality patient care, but continuously generating new revenue sources and augmenting existing revenue streams are also essential for the survival of the institution. In terms of revenue, the global demand for remote patient monitoring is going to be worth USD 2936.38 million by 2025. Heart disease kills one person every 37 seconds in the US itself and the country spends USD 219 billion per year on related treatments.

Remote patient monitoring means the ability to consistently monitor the patient’s health parameters through devices such as remote heart monitoring devices, the Holter variable ECG, the cardiac event recorder or cardiac event monitoring biosensors.

Here are the main benefits of remote heart monitoring using devices like Hotler

• Drastic reduction in the cases of hospitalization due to atrial arrhythmia.
• Faster and timely detection of clinical events.
• Increased survival rate among the patients.
• Historical heartbeat and blood flow data across days, weeks and months.
• Fewer follow-up visits.
• Optimal use of hospital resources.
• Lower healthcare cost because of early detection and prevention.

 

What is a remote heart monitoring device or a cardiac event recorder?

These are tiny devices a patient can carry around in his or her pocket or attached to the chest area. These devices are connected either to a mobile app using Bluetooth technology or directly to a cloud service through Wi-Fi or a carrier service.

These are also called wearable ambulatory sensors and they carry an accelerometer. The accelerometer detects movement and other dynamics such as ballistocardiogram to monitor heart rate and blood ejection. The minutest details are transmitted to the doctor at the hospital and comprehensive reports can be generated on the fly. Alarms and

notifications can be triggered in case there are some anomalies and medical intervention is required. These devices can be fitted on temporary as well as ongoing purpose.

Main highlights of heart monitoring devices and cardiac event recorders:

• They are easily wearable – patients can paste them onto the skin or carry them in their pockets.
• The device continuously monitors heartbeat and blood ejection.
• Details are continuously transmitted to the hospital or the concerned physician.
• Alarms and notifications can be set to trigger action when required.
• Comprehensive reports available in print form, desktop computer and mobile phones.

Devices like the Holter ECG variables are among the most widely used cardiac event monitoring biosensors

As they say, “the devil is in the detail”, the anomalies and the patterns that a heart specialist can detect, normally go unnoticed even by the patients. Hourly, daily or weekly patterns can be observed by the doctor, without the patient having to visit the hospital personally.

 

How the remote heart monitoring devices help the hospitals maximize their ROI

Distance and timeliness can be big problems for patients as well as doctors. Many patients don’t get round-the-clock medical supervision because they live far away from the hospital. As a result, the patient is denied quality medical care and the hospital misses an opportunity to provide healthcare as well as nurture a revenue source.

• Highlights in terms of maximizing hospital ROI
• Freed up emergency services.
• Optimal use of critical resources.
• The hospital can serve patients who live far away.
• The hospital can charge a monthly fee to a wide range of patients living hundreds of kilometers away.
• Remote diagnosis can be conducted over phone or video chat after receiving data from the remote heart monitoring device.
• Greater physician efficiency.
• More number of happy patients.

Through remote cardiac event recorder services like the variable Holter ECG, hospitals can provide patient care remotely through a monthly fee. There are many patients that simply require routine monitoring. If their cardiac rhythm patterns are available to the doctors, they can simply prescribe medicine by phone or video calls. There is no need for the patient to travel to the hospital.

Too many patients visiting the hospital can also be a great drain on the resources of the hospital, especially when there is no particular need for the patients to pay the visit.

The technology demolishes the barriers of distance in a single sweep. Whether the patient lives just a few kilometers away or a few hundred kilometers away, he or she can join a program by paying a fee to the hospital.

The cardiac monitoring devices can be provided by the hospital and after the initial training the patient can go home. Since most of the preventive measures can be taken remotely (except for exceptions and medical emergencies), some patients may not even have to visit the hospital for months, or even years, and still utilize the services of the physician or the cardiologist by phone or video consulting.

 

How the advanced discrete biosensor helps minimize the patient monitoring expenses

Chronic heart disease requires ongoing attention. In the absence of a remote monitoring device a patient may need to visit the hospital multiple times. More visiting patients means more strain on the hospital resources.

This can also be a financial strain on the patient as well as the hospital. In most of the cases, a doctor just needs to run some tests and go through the reports. If these tests and reports can be generated remotely, the patient doesn’t even have to come to the hospital. There are also travel expenses. If the patient comes from a faraway place, he or she may also need a boarding place, and this adds up to the expense.

Remote cardiac rhythm monitoring devices are needed generally after the first symptoms of a heart ailment, even after the first stroke. After that, through constant monitoring, the heartbeat patterns can be observed for an impending attack or stroke.

Most of the escalations can be avoided if it becomes known in advance that a problem is approaching. Precautionary measures can be taken beforehand and costly treatments can be avoided.

Treatment after a stroke or an attack can be very costly and consequently, a big financial burden on the patient or his or her loved ones. In many cases, prolonged rehabilitation needs to be undertaken. A patient can remain incapacitated for a long time, sometimes, even months, and years, and this can further add to the cost.

Since, due to remote cardiac rhythm monitoring devices, all the vital signs are constantly being monitored there is no scope for an oversight. The alarms and notifications are triggered by the software and hence, not even the smallest anomalies are missed, provided the device has been customized according to the patient.

In India, the rate of deaths due to heart diseases is more in rural areas than in urban areas and unfortunately, there are neither adequate health facilities nor state-of-the-art hospitals in small towns and villages. In such situations, remote cardiac heart rhythm monitoring devices can be lifesavers.

It is not possible for people living in villages to travel to the cities for treatment and hence, their heart condition can be monitored remotely. Due to better Internet connectivity, doctors can advise them remotely by quickly going through the reports generated by the data received from these cardiac monitoring devices.

There are many lifestyle -related ailments that lead to cardiovascular problems, such as diabetes, smoking, obesity, physical inactivity and hypertension. Many lives can be saved by remotely monitoring patients with greater risks of heart failure and stroke.

If, through constant monitoring, further complications can be prevented, it can bring down medical costs at both ends of the spectrum – patients as well as hospitals.