EDINBURGH, Scotland (January 30, 2019)—In an effort to keep patients safe and healthy in their own homes, the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust Hospital at Home team deployed Current, an AI-enabled wearable platform, to remotely monitor patients after being discharged from the hospital. By analyzing the real-time health data Current collected, Dartford and Gravesham clinicians and staff re-prioritized home visits based on criticality, resulting in a 22 percent reduction in home visits, freeing up skilled nursing time and resources.
NHS trusts are challenged with finding new and innovative methods to support their communities, while also managing ongoing winter pressures and continued workforce shortages. Serving more than 500,000 people, Dartford and Gravesham is one of the largest hospital trusts in North Kent, U.K., and its overarching clinical strategy is to increase care closer to home to improve patient outcomes.
Dartford and Gravesham selected Current (formerly snap40) as its remote patient monitoring (RPM) deployment partner because it wanted to use wearables and sensors in a cutting-edge way to help patients avoid hospitalizations, minimize readmissions and reduce Emergency Department (ED) visits.
The Hospital at Home team was trained to use Current in less than an hour and began monitoring patients within 24 hours of deployment. Current alerts the Hospital at Home team when a patient’s health shows signs of deterioration, providing an early warning system that allows for faster intervention and helps prioritize patient needs. The Trust demonstrated a 92 percent patient adherence rate—well above the typical industry rates of 50 percent—as patients took great pride in wearing the Current device, reporting that they felt safer and more secure, and that the platform was easy to use.
“The value of Current was demonstrated in our very first patient—a chronically unwell patient who suffered a decline in oxygen saturation, which Current detected sooner than standard care would have caught it, letting us intervene earlier and in the patient’s home,” said Dartford and Gravesham CIO Neil Perry. “With Current, we’ve seen the ability to deliver intervention at a far earlier point and prevent hospital readmission.”
Current is worn on the upper arm where it continually and passively collects vital signs to provide a complete, automated picture of human health. Its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) platform analyzes patient data, offering actionable insights into the wearer's health.
The Hospital at Home service is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of nurses and physiotherapists experienced in managing complex patients at home, including those with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The Hospital at Home health team identifies those patients that can be appropriately managed at home, linking them to Current in just two minutes. Patients are sent home with two Current wearables, a Homehub and a charger. They simply plug in the Homehub to receive reliable in-home Wi-Fi and securely transmit data across the cellular network.
“Dartford and Gravesham is an exemplary hospital committed to improving the complete patient health care experience, with both clinicians and patients alike benefiting from such a proactive approach,” said Current CEO Christopher McCann. “Not only was preventative care made a reality for patients far earlier than standard care expectations, but patients reported feeling safer and more secure wearing the Current device—this is one of the greatest benefits we can ever expect to realize as a team.”
Visit currenthealth.com for more information.
