For patients suffering from chronic illnesses or long-term health problems hospital readmission is the unfortunate normal. However, there are ways in which collaboration technology can help prevent hospital readmission after discharge.
Care at the community and home level, as well as a focus on preventive care and case management can contribute towards preventing hospital readmissions. Also, care can be taken to prevent health emergencies by better managing chronic diseases.
Video collaboration is the simplest way to bring healthcare to the community. What is needed is video technology that is enabled through a standards-based, scalable platform, so that community members can all join a multipoint video call. Patients benefit from regular evaluations and better access to specialty support.
Patients can also participate in live or recorded education sessions, regardless of location or the ability to travel. And today’s more or less ubiquitous video means that you can have multiple video sessions for individuals as well as for groups.
This white paper by Polycom lists the top 5 ways to prevent hospital readmissions, using video collaboration technology.
Ways to prevent hospital readmissions
So, what are these top 5 ways? Here goes…
1) Creating effective discharge plans: Hospitals should offer live, collaborative video at the point of discharge and even beforehand. A live video conversation ensures that patients, caregivers, and family members are equal participants in the creation of the discharge plan and completely understand what needs to be done when the patient returns home or to long-term care.
Also, video recordings can be created and made available to the patient and family to explain the discharge plan. These videos can be stored and archived so that they are readily available in training libraries to be offered on-demand for those who need them. These videos can be used for operational education as well as externally for care delivery.
2) Showing better compliance with medication and care instructions: Patients often forget their care instructions or have problems with their medications. To prevent this, the details can be delivered via real-time video collaboration or offered on-demand from a pre-recorded video library. Family members can also participate from any location and help provide feedback. For those patients who cannot follow instructions due to language barriers, translation services can be provided over live video and instructions can be recorded in a variety of languages to be used when needed.
3) Adhering to better follow-up care when patient leaves hospital: Using video collaboration technology, patients and their family members have virtual access to their primary care physicians, case managers, and other trusted professionals. With simplified access from their home or long-term care center, patients are more likely to attend video follow-up visits, as opposed to regular follow-up visits. Through regularly scheduled education sessions offered over live video, patients become a part of a community focused on health and wellness.
4) Connecting family members to assist with long-term care: Live, interactive video from anywhere to anywhere can be a lifeline for family members who may not live close by, but want to participate in the care of their loved ones. Video collaboration means that family “support networks” can be created that can reach out to live professionals for guidance when needed. Family members also have access to pre-recorded videos to remind them of the details of care instructions, thereby keeping everyone on the path to recovery.
5) Preventing the patient condition from deteriorating: Chronic conditions need to be managed over time. As symptoms change, video collaboration connects patients to their care team without the need for readmission. Real-time video collaboration helps connect case managers, nutritionists, physical therapists, primacy care physicians and other healthcare professionals stay in contact with patients and their family members. These healthcare professionals can also adapt treatment plans to the evolving condition of the patient. Archived video content can help them train patients and caregivers on new treatment plans.
So, these are some simple ways in which video collaboration technology can help prevent hospital readmissions and improve the quality of care for patients. This technology is quite literally saving lives…here’s to seamless and effective video collaboration in healthcare…
For more information on how to set up a video collaboration solution for your business, contact Actis at 022-30808080 or at contact@actis.co.in.
(Content courtesy: www.polycom.com and Images courtesy: www.polycom.com and www.vcfl.net)