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Wound care needs within a large NW home care agency are often complex and require coordinated care and continued oversight. Previously, the agency staffed one WOC nurse, whom, was seeing an average of 25 patients per month due to scheduling and travel challenges. As studies support that the expertise of a WOC nurse positively impacts patient outcomes, the agency explored virtual applications to improve WOC nurse utilization.
Objective
The WOC nurse supports a large geographical area, therefore, the agency invested in a telemedicine application that runs on LTE, does not require a WIFI connection and is easily installed on the field staffs mobile phone. The application supports real-time video streaming; enabling the WOC nurse to consult virtually with the field staff while they are in the patient’s home. During the consultation, the WOC nurse obtains a detailed history and assessment and is also able to capture secure, high resolution images that can be immediately uploaded into the patient’s electronic medical record.
Outcome:
Utilizing a mobile phone telemedicine platform, the WOC nurse is readily available for consultation when contacted by a clinician in the patient’s home or facility. Following consultation, the WOC nurse assessment and captured images can be immediately reviewed by a physician or specialist. This process improves wound care outcomes and reduces costly supply overuse and unnecessary clinic or hospital visits. After implementation of a mobile phone telemedicine application, the WOC nurse increased the number of consultations to an average of 83 per month. The virtual WOC nurse team has continued to expand with the addition of two more full time WOC nurses. The virtual WOC nurse team have also extended WOC nurse consultation services to patients outside of the home health agency and average 250 consults per month using the telemedicine application