Providence Launches Remote Patient Monitoring Program for Chronic Care

A new partnership between Cadence and Providence aims to add remote patient monitoring (RPM) and responsive virtual care capabilities to clinics across seven states, enabling providers to remotely collect vital signs while allowing patients to remain at home.

Including 52 hospitals and more than 900 clinics, Providence is a nonprofit Catholic health system that spans Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

Through a partnership with health technology company Cadence, the health system will add an RPM solution and a responsive virtual care program to enhance chronic disease management. Through these tools, the two organizations plan to combine technology and a nurse practitioner-led clinical care team to review patient vital signs outside of clinical locations, the press release notes.

“At Providence, we prioritize human connection over all else,” said David Kim, MD, chief executive of the Providence Clinical Network, in a press release. “Our partnership with Cadence will extend our clinical team into our patient’s homes, allowing us to enhance the quality care we provide to patients with chronic conditions while streamlining the patient experience. The early clinical outcomes, along with provider and patient satisfaction results, are promising and we are looking forward to the progress and momentum ahead.”

In June 2022, the two organizations implemented the RPM program at two Washington clinics, St. Mary Cardiology and Lacey Family Medicine. Through this program, they aimed to support patient outcomes by incorporating lifestyle modifications and guideline-based medication management.

Of the 300 patients participating in the program, 89 percent take vitals daily, and only 0.2 percent of remote encounters escalated to engagement with Providence clinicians, according to the press release.

Additional benefits of the program include increased adherence to guideline-directed medical therapies (GDMT) and reductions in blood pressure among hypertension patients.

Now aiming to support patients throughout Providence’s seven-state footprint, the partnership will scale the program. In 2023, it will be extended across Washington service areas.

Currently supporting hypertension, congestive heart failure, and type 2 diabetes, the health system also plans to add chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care to the program in 2024.

“Providence is a world-class health system with a long track record of successful innovation. Providence’s focus on improving health equity and access at scale is deeply aligned with Cadence’s mission,” said Chris Altchek, founder and CEO of Cadence, in a press release. “Providence patients enrolled in Cadence are more engaged in their care and their clinicians are supported with a team that acts as an extension of their staff. Our teams will remain focused on delivering transformative outcomes to patients who battle chronic conditions.”

Recent studies have indicated the potential surrounding RPM solutions, noting that their use can provide various benefits.

For example, research published in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in March described the benefits that COPD patients experienced following remote cardiorespiratory monitoring.

Using data from a cohort of 126 COPD patients, the study involved a retrospective analysis of unplanned hospitalizations. After analyzing the EMR data of patients one year before and after the beginning of the intervention, they found that the RPM program led to a 65-percent decrease in the frequency of all-cause hospitalizations in the cohort.