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Current InitiativesHome Telemonitoring for Chronic Disease ManagementKeene-based Home Healthcare, Hospice and Community Services (HCS) received a three- year grant to develop a Chronic Disease Management program which could be a model for bringing advanced homecare to people in New Hampshire and in rural areas across New England. This program uses a technology that monitors at-risk heart disease and diabetes patients in their homes, recording vital signs such as blood pressure, weight, pulse, blood oxygen and glucose levels. The home monitors transfer this information from the patient's home using a telephone line to a secure computer record, allowing a nurse at the home care agency to monitor the patient's progress between home visits and alert the nurse to a change in the patient's condition. HCS is the lead applicant and they are developing the project in conjunction with Cheshire Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene. Monadnock Community Hospital will be added to the project in 2006. HCS is purchasing many home monitoring units over the next three years, benefiting nearly 1,000 southwestern New Hampshire patients who suffer from chronic ailments such as heart disease and diabetes. In addition to those patients on home monitoring, a wider spectrum of patients at earlier stages of chronic disease will have access to the self care teaching materials and to telephone contacts and other supportive services provided by a "coach" in conjunction with the outcome improvement program in place at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics. As the over-65 population in New Hampshire continues to grow more rapidly than in the rest of the country, implementing a project that uses home telemonitoring and self care teaching materials offers a sensible solution for improving access to and quality of care for this growing segment of New Hampshire's population. To learn more about this project, contact Judy Harris at jharris@hcsservices.org. |