Ochsner Health System's O Bar Improves Chronic Disease Management & Patient Engagement

Ochsner Health System is southeast Louisiana’s largest non-profit healthcare delivery system. A room in the Ochsner Center for Primary Care and Wellness has a fleet of five iPads® locked to a bar, each one loaded with all the apps the health system has vetted and approved. Patients at the O Bar learn about managing their disease, and link their new devices to their smartphones. Apps and settings are configured so that they’ll beam information back to Ochsner, and rather than relying on infrequent data, patients and their providers can use the technology to monitor their conditions on-the-go.

With the creation of the O bar technology service, compliance with care management goals increased from 50% to 66% in the 30 days after visiting an O Bar. Additionally, re-admissions in CHF patients who were sent home with wifi scales decreased by 44%. Also, improvements in diabetes and blood pressure control were also observed.