Telehealth helps during cold snap

A Leicester telehealth and telecoaching project has reported higher than expected success in keeping patients with chest problems out of hospital during the recent cold snap.

Emma-Jane Roberts, programme manager for NHS Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group, told eHealth Insider that the project recruited 41 patients in its first ten weeks and prevented 28 hospital admissions in that period.

“At this stage, the project has been more successful than we expected. We were anticipating saving one admission per week, but because of the cold weather we have had more than that,” Roberts said.

The project uses a definition of saved admissions that identifies where a clinical intervention has been made that stops a patient being admitted to hospital within 14 days.

Work on the project started a year ago, when the shadow CCG was looking for work programmes to take forward under the direction of its primary care trust.

GPs, patients and consultants were all involved in the design phase of the project. It uses telehealth devices monitored by the respiratory team at the local community trust and coaches provided by Totally Health, to deliver a combination of medical and lifestyle support to patients living with COPD.

Patients are issued with a Clini-Touch device and a dongle for transmitting data and answer basic questions about their condition using the touch-screen device.

The data is transmitted to a respiratory nurse, who can spot trends and intervene if necessary.

The health coaches, who are also registered nurses, provide structured mentoring and support via telehealth and telephone calls.

“They contact patients, provide health advice, and set guidelines for patients to meet,” Roberts explained.

“So when the snow hit us – which is when we would expect to see more of these patients come into hospital – we got the coaches to talk to patients and make sure they had their medication and extra blankets and had taken steps to stop that happening.”

The Shared Decision Making programme went live in December, and was aiming to recruit an initial 50 patients at a rate of around six a week.

Due to its early success, the project may be extended.

Roberts said a key feature of the Leicester project was the case management by respiratory nurses.

“I looked at some projects where the GPs did the case management, and that seemed to be difficult,” she said.

“You need to put in the resources to make this happen. We wanted our local respiratory team involved, because the GPS and the patients all know them.”