From Baby Boomers wanting to stay out of the nursing home to federal penalties for hospital readmissions, there's an emphasis these days on pushing healthcare into the home setting — and that's putting often-overlooked home healthcare services and workers in the crosshairs of the mHealth movement.
For a shrinking healthcare workforce struggling to serve an expanding population of seniors, the growing number of mHealth solutions can help patients connect in real time with clinicians, allow caregivers to monitor those patients, and more effectively enlist family members as part of the caregiving team.
"Home healthcare has been the ugly stepsister of healthcare reform … but it (does serve as) the eyes in the home for critical care services," said Tracey Moorhead, president and CEO of the Visiting Nurse Associations of America.
While many people seem to overlook home healthcare, Moorhead explained during a panel at the Partners HealthCare Connected Health Symposium in Boston, professionals working in that field are the ones adopting and using mHealth technology to keep seniors and those with chronic conditions out of the assisted care setting, and they're the ones who will be working with recently released hospital patients to make sure they don't need to go back to the hospital for some overlooked complication.
[Related: Are mHealth tools pushing EHRs toward obsolescence?]
"The utilization of technology has actually been the one great way that we can bridge that gap," said Dana Sheer, MSN, director of clinical programs for the Boston-based Partners HealthCare at Home program.
Sandra Sergeant, founder of Enfield, Conn.-based Caring Solutions said remote patient monitoring systems have been used in home healthcare setting for years — but they've been characterized by huge, immoveable machines that take up space in the living room or kitchen and are as attractive as a fire hydrant. The advent of newer, smaller systems, as well as platforms that can be accessed through PCs, laptops or smartphones, is making mHealth more attractive.
"You don't want to be just a piece of equipment in somebody's home," she said. "You want it to be part of the (patient's) lifestyle, and part of a program that combines with a care plan and visits" by home health aides.
Caring Solutions organizes New England Home Healthcare Consortium Summit, taking place Nov. 3-5 at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Mashantucket, Conn. Among the guest speakers is Greg Wellems, CEO of Imagine!, a Colorado-based company that develops SmartHomes, which use connected mHealth platforms to help people with cognitive disabilities and related conditions live independently.
"One of the greatest challenges facing aging adults will be receiving services and supports that enable them to continue to live a meaningful life in environments of their own choosing," Wellems said in a recent story published by the Hartford Business Journal. "This challenge manifests by both the changing physical and emotional needs of the individual and or the inability to find caregivers."
Indeed, mobile health technologies are empowering a new legion of home health services, enabling nurses, nurse's aides and family members to play a role in health maintenance, Cindy Campbell, RN, associate director of operational consulting for Fazzi Associates, said at the Partners HealthCare symposium last week in Boston.
"Our goal is to reduce the work associated with being sick," Campbell said
That's important at a time when the home healthcare industry—like the healthcare industry in general — is facing a staffing shortage.
There's another strong argument for mHealth as well. According to Sergeant, while the nation's growing senior population is intersecting with a shrinking healthcare workforce, there's also the problem of cost. The average rate for a private nursing home room has jumped from roughly $67,500 a year in 2008 to almost $84,000 in 2013, according to the Genworth 2013 Cost of Care survey. That's an increase of roughly 25 percent in five years.
"That's why (mHealth) has to be a more integral part of home healthcare," Sergeant said. "It has to become more commonplace."
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