Currently accepted at: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Dec 21, 2023
Date Accepted: May 8, 2024
This paper has been accepted and is currently in production.
It will appear shortly on 10.2196/55732
The final accepted version (not copyedited yet) is in this tab.
“Just because it's hard, it doesn't mean that our patients can't benefit from it”: Evaluation of a Remote Patient Monitoring Program During the COVID-19 Pandemic
ABSTRACT
Background:
Community health center (CHC) patients experience a disproportionately high prevalence of chronic conditions and barriers to accessing technologies that might support the management of these conditions. One such technology includes tools utilized for remote patient monitoring (RPM), the use of which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to assess how one CHC implemented an RPM program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
This retrospective case study used a mixed methods explanatory sequential design to evaluate one CHC’s implementation of a suite of RPM tools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses used EHR-extracted health outcomes data and semi-structured interviews with CHC staff and patients participating in the RPM program.
Results:
The CHC enrolled 147 patients in a hypertension RPM program. After 6 months of RPM use, mean systolic blood pressure (BP) was 13.4 mmHg lower and mean diastolic BP 6.4 mmHg lower, corresponding with an increase in hypertension control (BP<140/90) from 33.3% of patients to 81.5%. Considerable effort was dedicated to standing up the program, reinforced by organizational prioritization of chronic disease management, and by a clinician who championed program implementation. Noted barriers to implementation of the RPM program were limited initial training, lack of sustained support, and complexities related to the RPM device technology.
Conclusions:
While RPM technology holds promise for addressing chronic disease management, successful RPM program requires substantial investment in implementation support and technical assistance.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.