Partners HealthCare at Home strengthens services with Philips

Partners HealthCare At Home has selected Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) to support its growing telemonitoring services, providing improved clinical oversight for newly discharged patients and those with chronic conditions, such as congestive heart failure. With this enhanced care, Partners HealthCare At Home nursing staff can remotely monitor a patient's health by tracking vital signs and intervening earlier with medical attention, successfully reducing the rate of costly hospital readmissions.

"Remote patient monitoring does more than improve care coordination," says Sue Beausoliel, vice president of operations at Partners HealthCare at Home. "It provides a tool for patients to actively engage in their own health management. As the healthcare industry focuses more on improving patient experience and outcomes while reducing costs, technologies such as home monitoring contribute toward improved quality of life. Instead of having to wait for the next appointment, this real-time data daily monitoring helps us connect with patients, track their health status, alert us to a problem and intervene earlier before it becomes full blown."

The agency has already demonstrated positive results with telemonitoring through its Chronic Cardiac Care program. Since 2006, PHH has served 1,200 heart failure patients through this program and found a 50 percent reduction in readmission rates for enrolled patients, with an estimated savings of $10 million in health care costs.

Partners selected Philips as its telemonitoring partner based on its proven track record in implementing their other home based innovative clinical programs — Lifeline and Medication Dispensing — for PHH patients. These services transform the way care is delivered by creating the shortest path to the best care, from hospital to the home. Developed in collaboration with clinicians and health systems, Philips' hospital to home programs equip providers with a range of tools and services that lay the foundation for long-term success with telehealth.

The first 200 home monitors were installed in patient homes in less than two weeks. Partners utilized its own network of installers as a key asset in establishing monitoring services in patients' homes and providing the training needed to ensure both clinical and patient adoption.

"Telehealth is so much more than a monitoring technology or a patient engagement app – it's a coordinated set of clinical programs that's key to enabling the future of healthcare and addressing the needs of our aging population," said Brian Rosenfeld, M.D., vice president and chief medical officer of Philips Healthcare Hospital to Home. "Since 2006, Partners has been on the forefront of telehealth, and we're proud to help them drive the next phase of their strategic vision."

For more information on Philips Hospital to Home clinical programs, please visit: http://www.hospitaltohome.philips.com.

For more information on Partners HealthCare at Home, please visit: http://partnersathome.org/index.aspx.