East London NHS Foundation Trust adopts patient monitoring technology to enhance patient care

East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and Docobo Remote Monitoring have been rolling out the patient monitoring system, DOC@HOME® in Community Health Newham (CHN) to enhance patient care and reduce demand on the local care economy. As one of the earliest adopters of patient monitoring technology, Newham is well aware of the advantages of digitally enabled care: improving health outcomes, reducing the load on busy GPs, consultants and health care professionals and reducing costs.

The DOC@HOME system is a regulatory compliant, digital patient monitoring and case management platform for patients living at home or in care homes. Typically enabling improvements in care for patients with Long Term Conditions, the system is also helping the NHS to monitor vulnerable patients being shielded from the COVID-19 virus.

The team at ELFT is leading the rollout to over 250 patients with cardiac, diabetic and respiratory issues, so patients can be monitored in the comfort of their own homes. Patients are being provided with tablets to record their observations along with devices such as thermometers, pulse oximeters, weighing scales and blood pressure monitors.

Led by an AHP and nurses, the team at ELFT manage a digital health hub which monitors patients’ observations which consist of both vital signs and symptoms. Patients complete a package of questions configured for their condition(s) on a routine basis, which have been designed by ELFT and Docobo. The regular monitoring of people’s health enables the NHS to observe and intervene early: better for the patient and more efficient for the NHS.

“Demands on the health system were a challenge before COVID-19 and now with the current climate, GPs and health care professionals are wanting to use more Telehealth monitoring to enable them and the whole NHS to provide high quality care to patients more efficiently. I would like to thank the Newham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for all the work they have done to facilitate links between the local GPs and ourselves. It has been crucial to the whole process." Raguraman (Ram) Padmanabhan, Clinical and Operational Service Lead, ELFT

Adrian Flowerday, Managing Director of Docobo Remote Monitoring: “It’s very pleasing for us at Docobo to be able to help ELFT. Remote patient monitoring makes sense for everyone and enables the NHS to cope with increasing demands in out-of-hospital care. Our know-how and technology can be applied to so many aspects of care, as highlighted recently by the rapid addition of COVID-19 symptom question sets, that it’s become a very valuable way of changing and improving the way healthcare is delivered.”