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The goal of the Telehomecare program is essentially to empower patients, to take control of their
own health, and take control of their life, and have a better quality of life.
Patients have a new partner in health care. Telehomecare uses simple, home-based technology
to monitor key health indicators and help patients better manage COPD, or heart failure.
It keeps patients connected, in their own homes.
We are addressing two chronic diseases that probably are in the top 5 of the list of chronic
ailments that affect patients and cause them to actually require a lot of tertiary care
services, meaning emergency room visits, in-patient admissions, specialized clinic appointments.
The patient is managing their care, they're preventing exacerbation of their illness.
It's like a proactive approach. I know the medications that I have to take and why I'm
taking them. And it gets me on a schedule. I've been in hospital since 2011, 4 times
at least. Once I was on life support for 3 days, another time, my heart went out of rhythm
so I got paddles put on me a couple of times. And that was through getting there later rather
than sooner. So having this in place, I can turn that around to sooner rather than later,
and avoid all that unnecessary angst that I put on my family. I had the easy part, I
just slept through it. They had to look at me!
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We do health coaching sessions, based on what they've identified as gaps in their knowledge
about their health.
Patients love the program, and they love being able to see their vitals, and monitor their
health at home and many of the patients that are near the end of the program and are ready
for discharge have purchased or looked into buying equipment on their own because they're
able to continue to monitor their health at home.
Programs like Telehomecare really demonstrate the way you can use technology to improve
the care we provide our patients. We're then, utilizing our health care dollars more effectively.
I think we need to, as primary care physicians, embrace that patients are ready for it. I
think we need to be ready for it. This is quality care.
I would certainly recommend Telehomecare to others. I can't see why anyone wouldn't want
to try it. It was so simple, so enjoyable to learn. I'd rather do this than leave it
to chance. It's my life I'm dealing with. And I said earlier, I'm just looking for just
little longevity. It's a no brainer.
Telehomecare: Better health. At home.
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