Essential Digital Tools for Home Healthcare Givers to Stay Connected

Digital Mobility is nothing new to home healthcare providers. Cloud-based technologies and digital patient access are advancing their initiatives.

Smart Technology in Home Healthcare and Remote Patient Monitoring System

Home care technology is becoming smarter rather than better. The notion of 'smart' products is not new, since consumer homes are increasingly outfitted with smart technology such as lighting control systems, smart thermostats, smart appliances, voice-activated assistants, and other devices. In fact, by 2022, the average smart home is predicted to include 500 smart gadgets, many of which will be telehealth equipment. Furthermore, experts expect that during the next five to ten years, one-third of all smart homes will include features of health-related technology.

However, the future of home care technology extends beyond the conventional deployment and usage of gadgets such as smartwatches, glucose monitors, alarm systems, and even medical robots. Home healthcare devices will be considered as a fully integrated feature within our homes and routines rather than an application in ten years.

In 2019 and 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services created new payment codes to allow doctors to remotely monitor and coordinate patient care. Remote patient monitoring can earn more than $198 per month per patient. While clinical professionals undertake the bulk of the labor, remote patient monitoring (RPM) has been shown to improve patient outcomes while taking up little of the doctor's time.

Strengthening the Connect Between Home Healthcare Providers and Physicians

Connected healthcare is connected with connecting all aspects of healthcare, ensuring professionals and individuals have access to all the information they require, i.e. the need of the hour. Healthcare is shifting from being reactive and acute to proactive and preventative. The primary goal of linked healthcare is to encourage individuals to participate in their treatment by providing continuous health monitoring before an issue becomes serious.

Bridging the Gap

Communication between healthcare facilities is essential for a successful patient-centered healthcare system. Coordination with other healthcare professionals becomes easier and less time-consuming when patient data is shared at different levels of the healthcare pyramid. When a patient's medical history is accessible to experts in general care, urgent care, long-term care, and specialized care, clinicians may better track pain, medication, and mental and behavioral health issues. This demonstrates that they provide whole-person care. Having several healthcare providers track patient care, discover opportunities, offer patients access to their medical information, increase patient engagement with medical experts, and improve care plan compliance are all things that may be done.

4 Challenges in Successful Physician Engagement

So, how can a healthcare system encourage physicians to take a positive and constructive role in driving cost-cutting and quality-improvement initiatives? One important way for the company to deliver the word that it wants to focus on improving patient care is to use a crucial approach. A goal like this is more valuable to physicians than goals like cost reduction, uniformity, and waste reduction.

Let’s explore possible reasons:

1. Physicians are feeling overburdened and unprepared to execute change. They are also unaware of how their actions contribute to healthcare waste and inefficiency.

2. Hospitals and payers feel that hiring physicians is the most effective way to achieve alignment. A more comprehensive strategy involving several alignment levers (e.g., personal autonomy, clinical autonomy, coworkers, and the IT department) would be more effective.

3. Organizations mistakenly believe that remuneration is one of the most important motivators for physicians.

4. Physicians are risk-averse and have poor comprehension of the risk-based payment model.

The impact of employee engagement in healthcare is similar to that of other industries in terms of productivity, turnover, and financial performance. However, healthcare personnel participation has an influence on patients' health, safety, and well-being. Physicians have the lowest level of engagement in the healthcare workforce.

4 Ways to Boost Physician Engagement

1. Consistent assessment and comprehension of physician requirements.

2. Connect physicians to their work's significance.

3. The voices of physicians should be heard in the executive suite.

4. Concentrate on communication.

Final Thoughts:

Physician participation is critical to the clinical and financial effectiveness of forward-thinking health care organizations. At a time when physicians are feeling inundated by economic and operational changes in health care that appear to be beyond their control, and under increased personal pressure to perform better, continuing organizational support and involvement may make a significant difference in their effectiveness.

Reference and Research Notes:

The patient assignment problem in home health care: using a data-driven method to estimate the travel times of caregivers https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10696-015-9222-6

Old Age, New Technology, and Future Innovations in Disease Management and Home Health Care https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1084822305281955

Understanding challenges in the front lines of home health care: A human-systems approach https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003687014001069

Communicate seamlessly with your team and patients https://www.thehealthscore.com/product/