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Ruth Loucks of West York has had her WellSpan VNA Home Care call button since Aug. 7. |
Device helps to avoid rehospitalization
With the push of a button, WellSpan VNA Home Care patients can get help 24/7.
The call-button service is the latest in a string of VNA innovations. Patients wear the button on a lanyard or clip it to their belt.
“To activate it, a patient simply presses the button and the call center answers, ‘WellSpan at Home. How may I help you?’” said Mike Hamaker, president of WellSpan VNA Home Care.
Unlike some other monitoring services, WellSpan at Home is available for more than just emergencies. Patients can press it for any issue, including questions about their medications or upcoming doctor appointments. They can even get help calling a taxi, or having groceries delivered.
Operators at the Michigan-based call center access only basic patient information. For health care questions, they connect the caller with a WellSpan medical professional. Hamaker said the monitoring technology has improved since VNA debuted the service last year.
“Now the button is completely portable, so if a patient goes to Florida for example, they can just take it with them,” he said.
Some monitoring features don’t even require a button push.
“If the device moves downward at a significant rate of speed, it automatically prompts the call center to check and see if the patient fell,” he explained.
VNA nurses distribute roughly 150 call buttons per month. WellSpan covers the first 60 days of service. Patients who wish to keep it afterward pay $39.95 per month.
Hamaker said that for some low-income patients, WellSpan continues to cover the cost beyond the 60-day trial period.
“We quickly learned that the true value of this service is not in its revenue stream, but in the patient satisfaction, and in the avoidance of future readmissions,” he said. “We know that by avoiding one rehospitalization, we’ve paid for a patient’s call button for five years.”
He noted that many ED visits stem from behavioral health issues. Older patients living alone are particularly vulnerable to depression and loneliness. A call-button service can help ease their anxiety.
“The call center is fine with talking to a patient for 25 or 30 minutes, simply reassuring them,” he said.
Home care is verging on a digital transformation, he said, with better efficiency and outcomes.
“The call button is one of several new accessibility tools for managing populations of patients. The technology is coming to you, in your home.”