Frimley Health’s remote monitoring programme shows promise

An independent actuarial report from Strategia has confirmed the potential of Frimley Health’s remote monitoring programme for patients with multiple long term medical conditions and frailty. 

Since the programme’s launch in 2022, Frimley ICS has enrolled more than 8,000 patients onto the service, which uses remote monitoring technology provided by health IT vendor Graphnet to enable early identification and management of deterioration.

An initial analysis for the first 3,673 patients, conducted by consultancy firm Strategia, recorded a 38.6% reduction in A&E attendances, a 53.7% reduction in admissions and a 26.7% reduction in outpatient appointments between December 2022 and October 2023.

Strategia has reviewed the methodology and comparable literature from other studies and concluded that the direct savings from the these three measures will be in the region of £5 million to £8 million annually.

The report also recorded a 19.4% reduction in GP contacts, a 36.1% reduction in 999 calls, a 36.9% reduction in 111 calls and a 7.6% reduction in the volume of prescriptions issued for remotely monitored patients, over the same 10-month period.

Sam Burrows, chief transformation, delivery and digital officer at NHS Frimley, said: “Our remote monitoring programme enables us to provide patients with timely advice and care when they need it and our residents and professionals report feeling more reassured and satisfied as a result. 

“It is great to see emerging methodology around calculating the savings at a system-wide level and we are keen to spread the learnings and maximise its potential use across the NHS.

“Our workforce is under immense pressure, but early intervention means we are helping more patients to stay well and reducing unscheduled care.”

Frimley Health and Care worked with Graphnet to develop population tools for the remote monitoring programme, that enable health readings from medical devices to be shared with a digital health team, who can offer advice and early interventions. 

Patients are provided equipment such as blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters and thermometers and can share their health data either daily or weekly using the DOC@HOME app via tablets and phones.

Markus Bolton, director at Graphnet Health, said: “The results of Frimley Health and Care’s population health driven approach are very encouraging – and it’s also great to see them sharing their integrated approach to system transformation with other ICSs across England. 

“We are excited about the potential benefits of scale. Graphnet’s digital tools already cover 20 million residents across England and the Strategia report has only just started to scratch the surface of quantifying the benefits.”

Frimley’s digital transformation programme, Connected Care, which is underpinned by the Graphnet Health Shared Care Record, started at care homes in March 2022 and was expanded to patients with complex needs in December 2022.