The Telehome Monitoring Program is designed to help very sick patients stay healthy at home so they do not experience frequent return admissions to the hospital. Most patients enrolled in the program have advanced heart failure. Some patients with pulmonary artery hypertension, or those who have undergone complex surgery, also participate.
Enrollment in the Telehome Monitoring Program is automatic. If you are in need of extensive follow-up, you will be referred to the program before discharge from the Heart Institute.
What to Expect
If you are enrolled in the program, you will receive several pieces of home monitoring equipment. You will also be trained how to use them before you go home:
- A scale
- An automated blood pressure cuff
- A pocket electrocardiogram (ECG) machine (optional)
- A home monitor that transmits your vital signs and other important information to the Heart Institute
Once home, you will use the equipment, as taught, once each day. You will then use the monitoring station to transmit your vital signs and weight by regular phone line or cellular connection to the Heart Institute. An expert cardiac nurse at the Heart Institute reviews the information daily and alerts a Heart Institute physician if your blood pressure, heart rate, or weight is of concern. Your diet and medications may be adjusted as needed.
Your doctor and family are kept informed of the monitoring results and of any required changes in medications. You will stay in the Telehome Monitoring Program from one to three months after leaving the Heart Institute, depending on the severity of your disease.
If you are a patient at a community hospital in the Champlain LHIN, you may receive your equipment and training at your local hospital. Information collected will be shared between your regular doctor and your healthcare providers at the Heart Institute.