There have been an abundance of reports with an almost embarrassing wealth of evidence about the quality and productivity of care outside of hospital settings.
So why, despite some good, but rare domestic examples, are we largely stuck with the traditional model? Some have argued that the rise of AHSNs, Innovation Units, and Centres of Excellence have unwittingly laid down a fresh layer of bureaucracy. Thankfully, the evidence doesn’t support this and instead points to an uptick in deployable innovation, assessed and promoted through AHSNs and similar catalysts.
Recent studies in the US and UK show that older adults who were treated at home rather than in hospitals are significantly less likely to be readmitted within 30 days. We have also seen reports such as that issued by the Improvement Analytics Unit (IAU), a partnership between NHSE & NHSI and the Health Foundation which found that 41% of emergency admissions to hospital involving care home residents could be potentially be avoided with better provision of preventative primary care, community support or NHS care in care homes.
Factors such as interoperability remain important, although shouldn’t be relied upon as a means to slow or paralyse change. Consistently we heard that whilst there is a desire to embrace innovation and technology, the sheer volume of fragmented healthcare apps and solutions mean NHS and social care providers are both overwhelmed with the scale of options available and face additional complexity of managing and integrating multiple solutions. While developing the Kraydel Konnect, our NHS partners expressed a clear desire for more focus on the integration of IoT devices around the home and the aggregation of data in a single collaborative and easy to use platform with demonstrable ROI. The result is that the Konnect telehealth and smart remote monitoring system delivers immediate quality and productivity benefits to the NHS and home-care. Our customers point to tangible improvements in:
Delivering high-quality user-centered care in a User’s own home
Having an immediate impact on the ability to reduce delays in discharge
Reducing pressure on hospital capacity
Konnect secure TV- video calling enables telehealth consultations with care teams from the comfort and convenience of the person’s own home. Konnect’s IoT sensor integration also enables remote monitoring through out-of-the-box devices such as digital thermometers and blood pressure cuffs with data encrypted and transmitted to the Konnect dashboard. The User and Carer are not required to learn anything new.
Delivery of care through the television in the Users own home provides a low barrier to adoption and significant cost benefits, delivered through:
The simplicity and ease of use for those not comfortable with new technologies mean TV-based healthcare is tech agnostic and has lower costs of adoption with higher user uptake.
Konnect delivers on cost-effectiveness, being by far the lowest cost system for the level of functionality and device integration provided.
The use of parameters for anomaly detection and to identify, notify and escalate ‘outside of expected range’ healthcare readings provides a simple but smart remote monitoring platform with the ability to pair any healthcare device relevant to the care pathway.
Decreased costs for the patient and care provider of travelling and time spent on hospital waits.
The increased demand for remote monitoring due to patient shielding and decreased access to hospitals, means that greater emphasis is now being placed on developing smart homes and connected care homes. The scaling up of technology within the home will see a fundamental shift away from simple standalone wearable devices and sub-optimal app-based services towards more sophisticated health platforms such as Konnect.
Two points in closing, firstly that the healthcare system should pursue standardisation with the same passion for home base care as it does for hospital-based care or risk the same unacceptable variations in care which persist in hospital settings. Lastly that the well-trodden central argument for cost savings, whilst remaining important, is becoming increasingly fatigued, with other factors such as workload, workplace stress, and morale becoming the key drivers for the need to deliver a fundamental shift from hospital to home-based care.
If you’d like more information about the Konnect system please contact hello@kraydel.com