What Is Remote Patient Monitoring and Why Is It Important?

remote patient monitoring

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has many benefits to health practitioners. First, RPM makes it easier for health practitioners to acquire patient data and deliver premium care to many patients with low burnout risk. And secondly, healthcare providers benefit by using little funding to get authentic outcomes. But what is remote patient monitoring?

What Is Remote Patient Monitoring?
remote patient monitoring

Remote patient monitoring is a technique used by healthcare providers and practitioners to deliver quality services to patients through the latest advanced information technology. It acquires patient data through modern means as opposed to traditional health care settings.

The purpose of remote patient monitoring is to equip healthcare facilities with technology that allows the transition of more patients from the traditional hospital setting. As good as it is, it requires healthcare providers to understand and use it efficiently so that they can bridge the gap between traditional physical hospital settings to where people are. 

RPM has most recently been during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw social distancing become a  necessity, making remote patient monitoring the go-to solution.

Top 4 Benefits

1. Helps Track Coronavirus Symptoms with Apps 

Multiple RPM tools were already in use before the  Covid-19 pandemic and even during the pandemic, more RPM tools emerged, such as blood glucose monitors, patches for tracking medication adherence and blood pressure cuffs.  

A survey conducted in 2019 by Spyglass Consulting Group found that nearly 88 per cent of healthcare providers have heavily invested in or are monitoring and evaluating RPM tools. As the COVID-19 crisis continues there is no doubt that RPM innovation has proven to be a necessity.

2. Helps With Education, Support, and Feedback

The necessity of the continuous connection between healthcare providers and patients has increased the use of RPM—to equip patients with various levels of education, feedback, and support compared to traditional healthcare systems. 

This information, education, feedback, and support can be dispensed through a detailed graph of trends, however, most healthcare facilities provide friendly paragraphs that contain a summary of their services.

3. Essential for Healthcare Facilities that Want to Scale Up

Of course, health organisations with remote patient monitoring programs before the COVID-19 pandemic are more successful and scaled up than organisations just incorporating RPM.

Before the pandemic, health organisations with RPM programs set up monitoring tools in most homes and showed homeowners how to use the new RPM technologies

They had adequate time, whether remotely or in-person, to show and coach patients why and how to manage their health condition—leading to effective health management.

4. Enables the Collection of Important Information

RPM helps health practitioners to obtain vital information while still engaging and assisting patients remotely. Typically, the short term goal is managing and reducing the risk of COVID-19. In contrast, RPM’s long-term goal is to improve the quality of healthcare services and reduce costly ER visits. 

SOFIHUB: Your Remote Patient Monitoring Solution

Considering that the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us, making remote patient monitoring is a necessity. At SOFIHUB, we’ve transformed the landscape for professional in-home caring. Learn more at our SOFIHUB home care webpage —where we will explain how we provide healthcare facilities with SOFIHUB products to help serve their clients.