After a 3 month pilot program Catholic Health Services’ will be able to provide specialized medical care to patients in St. John’s Nursing Center, 24/7, 7 days a week. Catholic Health Service (CHS) and Duxlink Health Technology (DHT), a new tele-care technology company, developed a specialty tele-medicine program for medially complex patients discharged from hospital for sub-acute skilled care. Rehospitalization of nursing home patients are frequent and result in complications, morbidity, and incur Medicare expenditures of more than a billion dollars annually. The lack of a physician presence at many nursing homes during off hours is a contributing factor to avoidable hospitalizations.
Although Telemedicine does not replace the on-call or primary care physician; it supports and reinforces care. Duxlink Health Technology provides accessible local board-certified and state-licensed specialists (i.e., cardiologists, pulmonologists, geriatricians) whenever the physician or nurse practitioner is not available should a patient be in need of immediate attention.
Technology is changing our lives, including healthcare. Duxlink Health Technology has developed an integrated system with several patents. It includes wireless tele-monitoring devices, such as blood pressure, pulse oximeter, glucometer, weight scale, stethoscope, and even 12 lead hospital grade ECG; information technology to capture and analyze patients’ data from variety of hospital or clinic medical record systems via a Patient-centered Data Mart; and provide services in patient remote monitoring and specialty physician consultations on a 24/7 basis.
