FQHC to Use Remote Patient Monitoring to Improve Hypertension Care

A North Carolina-based federally qualified health center (FQHC) has partnered with a remote patient monitoring company that focuses on chronic disease management to help improve virtual hypertension care.

Robeson Health Care Corporation serves over 15,000 patients each year across nine facilities. The non-profit FQHC offers primary and preventive care as well as substance use disorder services to residents in Robeson, Scotland, Montgomery, Moore, Johnson, and Pitt counties.

The new partnership will allow the FQHC to offer the remote patient monitoring program from HealthSnap to more than 2,500 patients living with hypertension.

HealthSnap’s platform seeks to boost clinical and financial outcomes, including improving patient access to care and patient satisfaction, and reducing care costs, according to Robeson Health Care Corporation.

“Health equity and access remain a major challenge for the majority of patients in the U.S. living in rural areas, which makes the adoption of virtual care solutions for chronic disease management so vital for FQHCs like Robeson Health Care Corporation,” Eugene Nor, MD, chief medical officer of the organization, stated in the press release.

The remote patient monitoring platform includes pre-configured and cellular-enabled blood pressure monitors, weight scales, and glucose meters that can help patients monitor their hypertension from home. Users do not need access to the internet, a smartphone, or an application to participate in the program — a feature that may help increase access for those with limited digital literacy or low incomes.

In addition, the platform offers artificial intelligence-guided care coordination tools, and patient and population-level analytics data to better help providers manage patient care in a virtual setting.

Providers will also have access to personalized patient engagement solutions and EHR integration, according to the press release.

“Some patients have to drive hours to get to our facilities,” Nor said. “With HealthSnap’s remote blood pressure monitoring solution we can now deliver accessible and proactive care.”

FQHCs and their healthcare providers can use the remote patient monitoring program as a standalone platform, or they can integrate it with a patient’s existing EHR.

Remote patient monitoring continues to be a popular care modality in treating hypertension in patients, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January 2020, providers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) gave new mothers an mHealth-enabled blood pressure cuff. The remote patient monitoring tool encouraged individuals to monitor their blood pressure daily and send the information to their providers via text message. The program helped reduce hospital readmissions and improve patient-provider communication.

More recently, researchers from the University of Missouri created a prototype of a remote patient monitoring finger clip that can noninvasively measure a person’s blood pressure. The finger clip has the potential to monitor patients’ hypertension while eliminating the stress that patients may experience while getting their blood pressure taken in a clinical setting.