Saint Agnes Home Health Launches Virtual Care

Saint Agnes Home Health has launched a new program – Home Care Connect™ – that empowers patients who are recovering at home from an illness or surgery to be more in control of their health care. As a result, patients have been able to avoid additional hospitalizations and ER visits.

Home Care Connect™ is an integrated care system that allows patients to be monitored 24/7 from a Virtual Care Center that is staffed by specially trained nurses. Utilizing wireless devices, including a 4G-enabled tablet with voice and text instructions, scale, pulse oximeter and a blood pressure monitor, patients are able to stream information to the Virtual Care Center where it is received by nurses who respond in real time to changes in blood pressure, weight, health symptoms, etc. Patients and nurses can also connect for virtual visits at any time using two-way video.

This technology blends nurse and therapist in-home visits with easy-to-use, advanced technology and 24/7 virtual care to empower patients to achieve their health goals.

"I really enjoy knowing what to expect that day as far as my sugar levels or heart rate," says Home Care Connect user and Saint Agnes Home Health patient Maria deGonzales, 71, of Sanger.

Maria has been using the system for three weeks following the treatment she received at Saint Agnes Medical Center for asthma. While in the hospital, physicians discovered Maria's sugar levels were elevated due to her nebulizer and inhaler, and she also had a severe Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) spreading to the kidneys.

Upon being discharged home, Maria was asked if she'd like to use the Home Care Connect™ system.

"I said, 'Yes, anything to help me stay out of the hospital'. It's been wonderful. The staff have visited to show me how to use it and they're great. I'm getting better each day," Maria says.

Maria keeps her Home Care Connect™ system, along with the provided scale and blood pressure cuff, in the kitchen where she enters her vitals every morning. The easy-to-use speech and text instructions walk her though steps to take and record blood sugar levels, pulse and weight.

"The doctor's office takes forever and I can't go there every day," Maria says. "Plus, the wait time and all the other people there with colds or the flu … I don't want to catch that, so there are a lot of benefits to this."

Nurses from Saint Agnes Home Health and Hospice's own Virtual Care Center are monitoring Maria's condition. If vitals change or appear to be abnormal, or if Maria reports a change in how she feels, Virtual Care Center nurses can take immediate action to help her, thereby preventing unnecessary ER visits or re-hospitalizations.

In addition, Maria's Saint Agnes Home Care team calls her once a day to check in and ask general health questions. Her care team also completes nursing visits once a week in line with Maria's care plan.

Only once was Maria alerted that her vitals were abnormal, but only because she applied the cuff too tightly. However, she has taken advantage of calling the 24/7 assistance line for technical questions and to make travel arrangements.

Home Health and Hospice has more than 100 units currently placed in patient homes, and patients are enjoying the many benefits of these new patient monitoring devices.

In addition, in May 2017, Saint Agnes Hospice launched Home Care Connect Link – a digital emergency response device that provides hospice patients and their families instant, two-way communication with the care team. With a simple push of the button on the wristband device, patients have 24/7 access to ask questions or get connected with their physician and other members of the care team.

For more about Saint Agnes Home Health and Hospice, click here or call (559) 450-5112.

To watch a video about Home Care Connect™, click here.