Technology brings care to home for chronically ill patients

At Geisinger in Pennsylvania, a pilot program to bring care to the homes of older patients with complex healthcare needs has shown a 35% reduction in visits to the emergency department visits, a 40% drop in hospital admissions and an average annual savings of nearly $8,000 per patient. The future will see chronic disease being managed more from homes and physicians’ offices than in a hospital setting. Chronically ill patients may not always require visiting the hospital frequently if their follow-ups and routine checkups can be managed remotely. At Geisinger in Pennsylvania, a pilot program to bring care to the homes of older patients with complex healthcare needs has shown a 35% reduction in visits to the emergency department visits, a 40% drop in hospital admissions and an average annual savings of nearly $8,000 per patient. The future will see chronic disease being managed more from homes and physicians’ offices than in a hospital setting.

Chronically ill patients may not always require visiting the hospital frequently if their follow-ups and routine checkups can be managed remotely. Especially in times of a pandemic, they are better off staying at home.

However, that should not affect their care. Given today’s technological advancement in healthcare, most follow-ups can be well managed remotely. While nothing can beat an in-person experience, physicians can check in on them digitally, through remote patient monitoring tools or video consults.