He’d been told by his doctor to get his affairs in order as his condition was going downhill rapidly.
Now he’s part of Echuca Regional Health’s new Remote Patient Monitoring program, which helps him cope with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart, lung and kidney disease, diabetes and temporal arteritis.
“It’s a good thing because if you have a problem it might be a month before you see a doctor but with this they check daily,” he said.
“It’s a day to day proposition, I’m still here and still doing everything I want to do.”
The RPM program is being offered as part of Complex Care and monitors patients’ vital signs such as weight, blood pressure and heart rate using specialised devices that connect to the patient’s smart device.
The levels are monitored once a day by Complex Care clinicians and with the aim to keep people healthy and out of hospital.
“The program follows on from another project that looked at hospital representations,” project co-ordinator Melanie Molluso said.
“The project found people in the Echuca area with COPD, chronic heart failure and diabetes were more likely to come into hospital, often more than twice a year.
“Commonly people had trouble monitoring their health and had limited strategies they could use to help them recover quicker and stay well.”
Dove Medical Centre, Echuca Moama Family Medical Practice, Echuca Medical Practice and Rich River Medical all have clients on the program.
“We identify patients who would benefit from this program and refer them on to the team,” Dove Medical Centre’s Dr Olusegun Ajiboye said.
“Initially we set the parameters of what is safe for the patient, the team send us reports and then we can determine if the patient is deteriorating and intervene.
“It reduces the anxiety of the patient and prevents unnecessary hospital admissions — patients like to be in the comfort of their home and be healthy.”
Sally Young is also part of the program to manage her lung disease and said it was “the best thing”.
“It helps me because I know where I’m at and it gives me early warning signs of anything that’s wrong so I can get onto my action plan before it becomes a problem,” she said.
A month into the program, 10 people are involved, with 30 spots available in total for people from Cohuna to Kyabram and Moama.
The program is free for eligible people admitted to the Complex Care program.
For further information contact 5485 5855.
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