MARCH 1997 PRESS RELEASE
Health Care Providers Expand the Home Care Telemedicine Market
Medford, Oregon (March 19, 1997): Administrators of home care telemedicine programs uniformly agree that combined video and telecommunications technology can help serve a large number of patients who are currently being seen with traditional in-home visits. The current method of providing home care services is somewhat limited, since a nurse must travel to each patient’s home and may only be able to see four or five patients per day. Using home care telemedicine systems, interactive "video visits" can be conducted with up to fifteen patients daily. The most enthusiastic end-users feel that telemedicine can be applied in some capacity to serve the entire current population of home care patients.
Home care telemedicine systems generally consist of two units. One device is placed in the patient’s home, and the other is located at the health care provider organization, where nurses are available to conduct visits using interactive video technology via ordinary telephone lines. The goal is to monitor chronically ill patients on a regular basis to enable earlier intervention, while also providing educational information and encouragement through positive feedback. Several tangible benefits have already been realized for patients who have participated in home care telemedicine pilot programs. For example, there has been decreased dependence upon emergency, hospital, and physician resources. Having access to regular interactions with nurses can help individuals continue to live independently in their own homes, forestalling the need for transfer to a skilled nursing facility. Perhaps the most significant improvement is the sense of well-being that is developed in patients who experience decreased feelings of isolation and become more involved in their own health care management plans.
For home health and managed care organizations, administrative cost savings are being realized, with reduced driving times, off-site supervision requirements, and overtime payments for nursing staff. While administrators and nurses are enthusiastic about home care telemedicine because of cost and time savings, patients have also expressed a great deal of acceptance of the new technology. Even though sophisticated equipment is used, the relationship developed between the nurse and patient takes over and minimizes the "high-tech" aspects.
The U.S. Home Care Monitoring and Telemedicine Markets report from Feedback Research Services describes forecasts, issues, and trends for traditional, transtelephonic, and telemedicine monitoring segments. The emerging nature of telemedicine and the potential advantages achieved with these systems has created a great deal of interest among health care provider organizations. Patient education and use of ordinary phone lines are key components for future growth of the home care telemedicine market. At present, the cost-benefit ratio from an administrative perspective is justifiable because a relatively low initial capital investment of $25,000 can support a turn-key system to serve five patients, with the cost of a video visit generally being less than half as expensive as an in-home visit. According to industry representatives, home care telemedicine can increase profits in managed care environments by containing the costs for "high utilizers", patients who require many hours of skilled nursing care on a daily basis. Even though home care telemedicine is slowly being implemented right now, the potential for the future is quite large. Commercial systems have only been on the market for two years, but more products are now being offered from a total of three competitors. Establishment of additional pilot programs is expected to increase significantly in 1997.
The U.S. Home Care Monitoring and Telemedicine Markets report from Feedback Research Services includes revenue forecasts. The content is based on 200 hours of research. For more information about this report, contact us at 541.899.8088 or info@feed-back.com.
