What Is The Impact Of Smartphone Usage In Home Care?
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Study planned to determine effect of smartphone usage by home care aides
Aetna Better Health of Illinois and Addus Home Care plan to “conduct a pilot study on the impact of providing smartphones to home care aides who assist Illinois residents served under the state’s Integrated Care Program (ICP),” according to this press release announcing the partnership.
The release notes, “The pilot study seeks to demonstrate the benefits of smartphones to help home care aides report changing health conditions of members in real time to supervisors and to the members’ primary care physicians.”
In 2011 the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) implemented the ICP for older adults and for adults with disabilities who are Medicaid-eligible. The ICP coordinates services across the continuum of care, helping to prevent unnecessary health care utilization and costs.
“Through the mobile device, we can really put the home care aide on the health care team,” said Mark Heaney, president and CEO of Addus. “Changes in an ICP participant’s condition can be communicated in real time, allowing for early identification and intervention by health plan case managers.”
According to EHR Intelligence, “Smartphone use is intended to help ICP workers track the health, both physical and mental, of those they serve.” Information will be relayed from the smartphones to the patient’s primary care physician in real time, and the primary focus will be on acute care and emergency services with a study outcome expected sometime in 2014.
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