Telehealth devices help nurses check patients by phone

[rwingo]

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content...omehealth.html

Home health nurses know how to recognize patients headed for trouble. Sudden weight gain, high blood pressure and low oxygen levels are a few examples of easily recognizable signs that someone’s health is deteriorating.

But, too often, patients end up back in the hospital despite those telltale signs simply because a nurse wasn’t around to notice them. On average, home health nurses visit a patient only once a week.

To help solve that problem, many home health providers are turning to technology. In some cases, it’s as simple as using a telephone to check on patients between visits. But increasingly they are using “telehealth” machines that take patients’ vital signs and transmit them over a phone line for review...