When making decisions about home care services, it is important to understand the value that technology brings to the process. In recent years, home telemonitoring of patients has had a profound impact on improving patient recovery. Telemonitors are devices that record a patient’s vital signs several times a day and sends the information via the patient’s telephone line to a central station where the results are monitored by nurses.

As a result the nurse is as close as the telemonitor for the home care patient. Knowing changes in a patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, or weight in a timely way, or being able to trend and track this information for the physician, is enormously important in effectively treating patients.

Being in continual clinical contact with your nurse or doctor is very reassuring to a home care patient and enhances the recovery process. Love Healthcare was recently awarded the 2007 Health Insight Quality Award for ranking among the top 10 percent of all home health agencies in the nation for 12 quality factors measured. A major factor in achieving these quality results was the ability of telemonitoring to react quickly to changes in a patient’s medical condition.

Another major advancement in technology has brought much-needed improvement to patients requiring home oxygen. It is the home-fill unit. Homefill allows a patient to fill their own, small portable oxygen cylinders in their home rather than waiting for deliveries of the bulky ecylinders from a delivery service.

Studies have shown that an oxygen patient’s mortality is increased by 50% if they are able to be mobile, rather than being tethered to bulky oxygen cylinders. Homefill tanks can be as light as two pounds and can be easily carried around with a small fanny pack. Both of these technologies are available to patients of Love Healthcare.

Love Healthcare provides telemonitors to all of our home health patients. No other home health provider in the state provides this service for all of their patients who require one. Love, also, provides “homefill” units to all of our oxygen patients. We use “homefill units” exclusively.

Again, we are unique in the state in providing this technology to all of our oxygen patients. Love Healthcare’s owners and founders have utilized these technologies on members of their own families. According to CEO Steve Love, “…if their was anything better than this technology, my parents would have it!”

Technology makes a difference in homecare. Love Healthcare is proving it every day!