Technology plays an important role in all of our lives today and especially in health care. SMMC Visiting Nurses is taking advantage of the ways technology can improve patient care through our Telehealth Program. Here is how it works:

• Jan Prewitt-Small, RN, our Telehealth Nurse, will set up our "Well-at-Home" device in the home of a patient who could benefit from daily monitoring of vital signs. We can check blood pressure, pulse, temperature, weight, blood sugar or blood oxygen levels. The device is easy for the patient to use. Data is sent over the phone line back to the agency where the nurses can remotely keep close watch on how a home care patient is doing. The system also allows the patient's doctor, or even a designated family member, to see these vital signs through a protected website. This feature is ideal to reassure adult children, who may live outside of the area, about their elderly parent's ongoing health.

  In addition to the monitoring of vital signs, the device can also be set up to remind patients to take medications or when/how to follow the doctor's orders. It will also ask the patient to respond to questions about how they are feeling and provides education about their disease and why they need to take the medications ordered by the doctor.

Our Telehealth Program is not designed to "replace" the home visit by the nurse, but to enhance our visits with daily monitoring and frequent phone contacts. The program was started in January 2007 and is another tool that allows us to keep patients at home, right where they want to be!

• For more information about our Telehealth Program, please download our printable brochure here , or contact Jan Prewitt-Small at 985-1000.