TELUS Health on Thursday announced the expansion of its Home Health Monitoring (HHM) solution so that nurses and other healthcare providers in British Columbia can digitally monitor more patients remotely while they recover from COVID-19.
Launched in partnership with the B.C. Ministry of Health and local health authorities, this digital health dashboard enables healthcare providers to track the symptoms and provide medical help for more patients as they recover outside of hospitals in the comfort of their own homes.
“As we face the immense challenge of COVID-19, TELUS Health is committed to working alongside BC’s healthcare leaders to expand the use of technology solutions like Home Health Monitoring to support more British Columbians while recovering at home,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, TELUS. “By enabling clinicians to remotely observe the vitals of patients with COVID-19, as well as those who are vulnerable to the virus, and provide necessary interventions early, we can reduce exposure and also help to alleviate the pressure in hospital emergency rooms and clinics.”
Easily accessible through a mobile device, the program sends daily prompts to the patient to report their biometrics such as temperature, physical symptoms and overall health condition. This provides crucial information on the status of a patient’s health to their clinicians who are regularly and remotely monitoring their well-being through a digital dashboard.
HHM allows healthcare providers to view information for multiple patients simultaneously, enabling them to more effectively manage the vitals of a larger number of patients so they can quickly identify those patients in need of urgent care. Depending on the escalation of their symptoms, some patients may be advised to contact their doctor, or visit their nearest hospital emergency room, while others with improving symptoms may be told to continue recovering and isolating at home.
“Home monitoring is a significant part of our response to the ongoing pandemic. We are grateful for the technology and partnership with TELUS Health enabling our efforts,” said Lisa Saffarek, Clinical Director Virtual Care and Home Health Monitoring lead at Island Health. “With the Home Health Monitoring solution, we are able to stay connected with our patients, provide symptom support and ensure our patients who are quarantined or isolated at home are provided with safe and effective care. The monitoring solution has also improved clinical capacity for our Public Health team, the front line of our pandemic response.”
Home Health Monitoring by TELUS Health has been in use in B.C, since 2013 to remotely monitor thousands of patients in the province living with chronic conditions such as heart failure, diabetes and respiratory diseases. The TELUS Home Health Monitoring system is aligned with the Canadian Centre for Disease Control’s COVID-19 protocols for the monitoring of patients recovering from COVID-19 outside of hospitals.
“The B.C. Ministry of Health has partnered with TELUS since 2013 to implement and evolve a provincial remote patient monitoring service for patients with chronic conditions,” said Corrie Barclay, Assistant Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Management and Information Technology with the B.C. Ministry of Health. “Our investment has enabled us to act quickly to monitor our patients in isolation while also providing them with peace of mind, knowing that they are being monitored daily by their healthcare teams. As well, our clinicians are given the assurance that we are keeping track of our vulnerable citizens.”
Building off of this successful initiative in B.C., discussions with other provincial health ministries are underway to provide HHM technology to even more Canadians during these unprecedented times.
