Telehealth Learning Collaborative Practices Reflect on Lessons Learned

The Telehealth Learning Collaborative, "Using Technology to Improve Care for Patients with Chronic Conditions" came together for their 4th learning collaborative meeting this month. The 21 primary care practices are exploring different technology options such as remote patient monitoring, apps, and ambulatory blood pressure devices to improve care of patients with chronic conditions. The group also is exploring how to use the team-based approach and community linkages to improve patient experiences and outcomes. This quarter, practices reflected on their experiences to date. You can view all of the practice reflections in the meeting presentation; below are a selection of comments:

• Better management of chronic conditions: Prior to using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, there was no way to detect white coat hypertension, white coat effect, masked hypertension, nocturnal patterns of blood pressure, or the effect of antihypertensive treatment.
• Better patient engagement: The remote patient monitoring expansion has helped with engaging the “right patient” at the “right time”. Support for patients with chronic conditions every day and not just on the days of their appointments or scheduled follow-up calls. Patients bring up barriers that they would never bring up to their PCP in a visit.
• Better patient experience: Teens are more comfortable talking with provider using telehealth.
• Better use of staff: Due to the times that work best for many of our families, it was important to advocate that these nurses be able to work from home on this project to accommodate the scheduling needs of families such as weekends and evenings.
• Need for community linkages:  The project provided insight into family relationships and supports and helped with understanding that some patients really don’t have family support, which contributes to mental health concerns. Many of our patients may need support outside of their families.

The year-long learning collaborative is funded through authorized CARES Act funding, UnitedHealthcare and Rhode Island Department of Health.