Senior Home Care Expands In-Home Telemonitoring to Serve Patients in The Villages, Fla. Area

CLEARWATER, Fla., July 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of Senior Home Care's full range of clinical programs and services, the home health care company is expanding its Telemonitoring Program into The Villages area of Florida. Senior Home Care offers in-home patient telemonitoring from six of its 30 Florida Medicare-certified agencies, which are located in Gainesville, Naples, Ft. Myers, Winter Haven, Spring Hill and, now, The Villages.

Senior Home Care launched telemonitoring (telehealth) in July 2012 to monitor home health patients under their care who are high-risk and have chronic conditions, such as chronic heart failure. Clinical home health visits combined with telephonic intervention are shown to improve patients' outcomes, reduce avoidable hospital readmissions and enhance patients' understanding of their overall condition and progress.

In-home telemonitoring uses a system to link from a patient's home to their health care team at Senior Home Care. Cardiocom® is Senior Home Care's telehealth solutions provider. Cardiocom's Commander Flex device enables Senior Home Care's patients to have seven-days-per-week monitoring of vital signs, including pulse, blood pressure, weight and more (see cardiocom.com). Data is transmitted to Senior Home Care and integrated into the patient's established Electronic Health Record (EHR), which clinicians monitor, review and follow up as appropriate.

Judy Fenton, Director of Clinical Integration at Senior Home Care, explains that, "While telemonitoring is a valuable tool when a patient is recovering from an acute illness or exacerbation of a chronic condition, our patient-centered approach to care focuses on ongoing self management for the future." She adds, "During telemonitoring, our clinicians prepare patients for post-monitoring, so they are able to recognize key signs and symptoms – such as weight gain and swelling of the feet – that may require early intervention to prevent avoidable hospital re-admissions."

Technology is only as good as the clinicians behind it. Senior Home Care's clinicians utilize telemonitoring as a tool for augmenting one-on-one patient visits, during which they use evidence-based practices for standards of care. "Telemonitoring is just one more way our home health care supports quality outcomes and adds value to the health care continuum," Fenton says.

Senior Home Care, Inc. (seniorhomecare.net) has been treating seniors throughout Florida and Louisiana with quality home health care services since 1994. With 47 branch locations (Senior Home Care in Florida and Synergy Home Care in Louisiana) and 1,800 employees, the company is one of the largest home health care providers in the Southeast. Working in conjunction with patients' physicians, Senior Home Care's clinicians treat more than 50,000 seniors each year in their homes and assisted/independent living facilities.  

SOURCE Senior Home Care