September 27, 2007

Mercy Home Care Telemonitoring Improves Quality of Life, Reduces Healthcare Costs

Not long after 80-year-old Lebert Watterson wakes up each morning, a friendly voice reminds him that it’s time for his daily check-up.

The electronic voice that emerges from a device about the size of a telephone first asks the Sioux City retiree to step on a scale to check his weight. Next, he is directed to slip on a blood pressure cuff, and then a fingertip sensor that measures his body’s oxygen saturation. Then he answers a series of subjective questions customized to his specific medical condition that gives nurses a more complete picture of his health.

That information is transmitted instantly to Mercy Home Care, a subsidiary of Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City. Seven days a week, that preemptive telemonitoring helps home care nurses detect even small changes in Lebert’s health, which helps him avoid unnecessary ER visits and hospitalizations.

“It’s like having a nurse here every morning,” Lebert says. “And, I know it has helped keep me out of the hospital.”

“It is easy to use, and doesn’t take much time to check in,” he adds.

For Lebert and other patients with chronic medical conditions like congestive health failure, COPD, respiratory illness and cardiac conditions, a HomMed telemonitoring system can dramatically improve quality of life.

“The system is an excellent management tool for patients with chronic illnesses and other conditions requiring more frequent, in-home medical attention,” explains Donna Galles, clinical nurse manager for Mercy Home Care. “It gathers patients’ vital signs every day within the comfort of their homes and then transmits the information over a virtual private network or traditional phone lines for view by clinicians.”

“Daily in-home monitoring can detect even subtle changes in a patient’s health and can help prevent a worsening of the condition by alerting nurses who can provide intervention when it’s most needed.”

Galles says reducing unnecessary visits to the doctor’s office, ER, or hospital not only benefits the patient, but also helps keep healthcare costs down.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, an estimated 100 million Americans suffer from chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and lung disorders.

Lebert Watterson was the first patient to benefit from HomMed telemonitoring when Mercy Home Care began offering it last summer. Since that time, many Sioux City area patients have definitely reaped the benefits of the advanced medical tool.

“Thanks to daily monitoring, we’ve found patients who needed oxygen, or were alerted to patients whose blood pressure was out of normal range,” Galles says. “It has alerted us to quick weight gains that told us that congestive heart failure patients needed adjustments to their diuretic medication.”

“It is keeping many of these patients out of the hospital, and it is also giving them better control of their disease and care.”

The technology also gives Mercy Home Care patients peace of mind.
“I’d much rather be at home, but I feel like they’re watching over me, too,” Lebert says.

Founded in 1974, Mercy Home Care offers a wide range of home health services and products including nursing services, therapy, personal care, and home medical equipment.

Registered nurses provide medical, mental health, pediatric, infusion services, and ostomy/wound care. Licensed therapists on the staff of Mercy Home Care can help patients with physical, occupational, speech, and respiratory therapy.

The agency also has homemaker/companions available to help with housekeeping, meal preparation, or to just provide some companionship

Mercy Home Medical Equipment also offers Siouxland area residents a complete selection of home medical equipment. Working in close partnership with physicians, the agency ensures that each patient’s needs are fully met with the necessary personal equipment to ease in their recovery or help in day-to-day living.

Specialists assist clients with wheelchairs, power chairs, and seating and positioning equipment. Respiratory care equipment available includes oxygen, apnea monitors, ventilators, Cpap/Bipap equipment, and nebulizers. From its Home Medical Equipment office and store at 711 Fifth Street in Sioux City, Mercy Home Care also carries a line of hospital beds, lift chairs, mobility aids, bathroom aids, and home photo therapy equipment.

Mercy Home Care’s service area encompasses a 100-mile radius of Sioux City. In addition to central offices in Sioux City, Mercy Home Care operates branch offices in Hawarden, Iowa, and Pender, Neb.

The agency is Medicare certified and fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

For more information about in-home telemonitoring and the many other services offered by Mercy Home Care, call (712) 233-5100 or 1-800-897-3840.