How Remote Patient Monitoring Can Manage Hypertension

Reducing Risk with Remote Hypertension Monitoring

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a serious condition that now affects an estimated 1 in 3 Americans. Hypertension occurs when a person has a systolic rate of 130 or higher, resulting in dangerous levels of pressure within their arteries.

The most critical challenge related to hypertension is its lack of visible symptoms. This results in people suffering from the condition being in a continuous, life-threatening state that often goes overlooked for long periods of time. When left untreated, or when blood pressure exceeds safe levels, fatal issues such as heart attacks and strokes can occur.

This potential for life-threatening issues makes monitoring blood pressure in routine, disruption-free ways imperative to the safety and quality of life of patients living with hypertension.

Meeting this need directly are various forms of remote patient monitoring. Current devices and technologies specifically tailored for hypertension have created new, effective ways to track and treat the condition.

Monitoring Hypertension

According to the current guidelines from the American Heart Association, anyone living with blood pressure higher than 120/80 is encouraged to engage in regular monitoring. Traditionally, patients living with high blood pressure are required to regularly go to a clinical setting, where their pressure levels are taken by a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff. Most patients are then asked to take their pressure at home with similar cuff devices and note their levels manually.

While this is intended to help doctors keep track of their patient’s ongoing health status, missed readings and misinterpretation of results taken by patients create frequent emergencies. This unfortunately takes the power of care out of the hands of providers and creates unnecessary burdens on both insurance premiums and urgent care resources.

Studies have shown that many patients living with hypertension do not adhere to routine monitoring. This occurs for a variety of reasons, including the perceived inconvenience of monitoring technology and compulsory in-clinic visits, as well as inconsistency in reporting their pressure levels even when conducting routine checks.

While anybody can be trained to use the traditional devices used to measure blood pressure, many patients either do not fully understand or feel the need to address irregularities found in their pressure levels. The invisible nature of the symptoms of hypertension, paired with unreported issues in pressure levels, lead to frequent visits to urgent care, and sometimes life-threatening situations.

Remote Monitoring - Reducing Tension Amongst Doctors and Patients

The gap in both the convenience and consistency of monitoring and alerting is where Remote Patient Monitoring makes a quantifiable difference for those living with hypertension. Remote Hypertension Monitoring devices are effective alternatives to traditional measurement instruments. These devices are not only more accessible to patients, but they allow for easier, and more continuous data collection and alerting. Instead of relying on manual patient-to-doctor pressure reporting, these devices automatically send alerts to both patients and doctors when blood pressure reaches critical levels, or when notable irregularities in pressure are seen over time.

The implementation of RPM for hypertension patients has already seen enormously positive results. This transition from manual to automatic remote monitoring has led to increased adherence to at-home blood pressure monitoring among patients. In addition, the capacity of RPM to transmit blood pressure data directly to clinical staff has allowed providers to more adequately track and treat hypertension in their patients.

RPM devices for hypertension automate the transmission of blood pressure readings between patients and doctors and allow both parties to receive alerts that they can immediately act upon when risk factors become severe. This reduces emergencies, while also eliminating the tediousness of continuously logging and reporting readings in the traditional at-home method.

Easy Clinical Implementation

Remote Patient Monitoring for hypertension is one of the most significant advancements telehealth has provided in our generation. While clinical implementation can seem daunting, new services are taking the tension out of deploying RPM programs at the clinical level.

Accuhealth provides a turnkey solution to telemonitoring deployment for clinics of any size. Find out more about how your clinic can start its own remote patient monitoring service today, with zero commitment and up-front costs. 

To learn more about Accuhealth and RPM, access the resources below.

1. How to Set Up Your Remote Patient Monitoring System
2. The Complete Guide to Remote Patient Monitoring

If you are curious about CMS changes that may affect your practice, check this out.