Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) is one of the segments of healthcare that has immense potential for growth. With the Covid-19 pandemic, hospitals are increasingly using remote monitoring techniques to ensure the safety of their doctors and nurses. The main benefits of RPM lie in its cost-effectiveness, efficiency and patient-centric approach.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) has opened up a promising avenue in healthcare. Talking about Indian hospitals, we mostly experience the brunt of skyrocketing healthcare expenses, inadequate accessibility to healthcare, crunch of health workers, inappropriate infrastructure and more. Interestingly, remote patient monitoring works its magic and sorts out most of these setbacks, thereby empowering the hospitals.
Remote Patient Monitoring that involves real-time monitoring of the vitals of the patients, brings along a plate full of merits. For patients, it certainly provides better access to healthcare, improved quality of care, daily assurance and enhanced support and education. Besides, it also provides a value add to the hospital in terms of efficient patient management and saving loads of operational cost.
RPM saves money: It helps in cutting down expenses of hospitals. As per the latest data, the healthcare industry could save $700 billion in the next 15 to 20 years with the use of remote patient monitoring technology along with electronic health records (EHR). Additionally, it has been found to be the most quantifiable return on investment (ROI) for a hospital. Be it the reduction of readmissions, staff engagements or in-person visits, remote patient monitoring can directly cut down operational costs of hospitals enabling them to utilise the saved resources on other patients, hence upscaling efficiency and revenues.
It enables remote healthcare accessibility: With RPM in place, all you need to have is the technology that backs up real-time check on the vitals and makes healthcare accessible. It enables patients from any part of the country to get consultation from the comfort of their homes and without having to take up the trouble of visiting a medical practitioner in person. This is crucial especially for those with chronic conditions and are compelled to share long-term health data with the doctor. It helps in better communication, quick counseling, and timely intervention.
It makes healthcare efficient: According to a recent survey, 65 per cent of physicians believe that technology that captures consumer-generated data will reduce the burden on doctors and nurses specifically.For most hospitals in India staff burnout is one of the most pressing crises. Artificial Intelligence-powered remote patient technologies automate process redundancies and help offload several manual tasks.
It makes healthcare consumer-centric: Implementing technology and putting cloud-connected monitoring systems into use enhances patient experience and patient satisfactionconsiderably, thereby, ushering in positive feedback for the hospitals.
RPM in hospitals and its future
As per the latest estimates, the use of remote patient monitoring is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 48.9% through 2020, impacting the lives of about 36.1 million patients. However, limited awareness has resulted in some delay in RPM adoption. Wide scale availability and familiarity of consumer health devices coupled with increased willingness of both consumers and healthcare providers are expected to spearhead a steady leap in the growth of remote patient monitoring implementation in hospitals.
A study has revealed some highlights on the impact of Remote Patient Monitoring:
With everyday technology advancements and better inputs from the manufacturers, remote patient monitoring is believed to transform healthcare and take hospital care to better reach.
