Telehealth News

Kentucky Hospital Eyes Telehealth For Follow-Up Care for Burn Patients

The University of Louisville Hospital's Burn Center, the only hospital offering burn wound care services in the state, is considering using telehealth to better facilitate follow-up care and reduce travel costs.

Source: ThinkStock

By Eric Wicklund

- The only hospital in Kentucky that offers burn wound care services is considering telehealth to help patients access follow-up care.

Taking note of a high percentage of missed appointments, officials at the University of Louisville Hospital’s Burn Center set about creating a telemedicine platform that could replicate the in-person treatment plan. They then invited patients to connect with their doctors through an mHealth app.

“Travel distance, along with often other serious health conditions, make it difficult for patients to get to a weekly appointment,” Jodi Wojcik-Marshall, MSN, APRN, ANP-BC, manager of the UofL Hospital Department of Advanced Practice Nursing and a nurse practitioner in the Burn Center, said in a press release. “We saw a need to reduce the high number of missed appointments by reducing access barriers.”

J’Aime Jennings, PhD, an assistant professor and co-director of the Center for Health Organization Transformation at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, who helped create the connected health program, said the platform also enables care providers to loop in home health aides and family members who are part of the care team.

The program – which is now being evaluated by officials for sustainability and scalability – is one of hundreds launched around the country by hospitals and health systems looking to improve care management by extending treatment to the home.

Of particular interest are remote patient monitoring programs designed to enable patients who’ve been discharged from a hospital or who are undergoing treatment for chronic conditions to check in with their care providers and modify their care plan as needed.

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