Tri-City To Begin Remote Monitoring

Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside will begin remotely monitoring discharged patients in early 2013 in order to prevent their readmission.

The 397-bed hospital is using a platform provided by QualComm to monitor the vital signs of patients post-discharge. The data can be sent through an electronic hub installed at a patients home via wireless medical devices, or even in some instances a patient's cellphone. 

The hospital – as well as the patients and their families – will be able to monitor the biometric information via a cloud application.

Tri-City will be providing the care coordination to patients with specific chronic and acute conditions such as congestive heart failure, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease and myocardial infarctions.

Tri-City has a legitimate business reason for doing so: The recent initiative by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to enforce financial penalties for readmissions of certain classes of patients within 30 days of discharge.

“By better coordinating care for our patients, we're better able to keep them going about their daily activities from the comfort of their own homes,” said Larry Anderson, Tri-City's chief executive officer.