Telemedicine

Dad posing with his new HomMed system.

Some really cool medicine that looks like a life saver, and a cost saver!

Dad's home nursing folks have installed a telemedicine system that monitors his vitals on a daily basis. Weight, blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and oxygen level between 8 and 8:30 AM 7 days a week. The machine prompts him when to step on the scales, put on the blood pressure cuff, etc. He also has to answer a few questions about shortness of breath, swelling in legs, etc. by pushing YES or NO buttons! The info is transmitted via phone line to a central monitoring station. He gets a call from the nurse if his numbers are outside the limits considered OK. We know it works, because on his first morning, the nurse called him because his oxygen level was low. She did not know that Dad had a bad time earlier that morning, and a nurse had already been to the house, and adjusted his meds in consultation with his heart doctor! The monitoring nurse said OK, but to call her if there were any further problems!