Go to hospital less often with home monitoring box

Patients with chronic kidney disease need less frequent visits Erasmus hospital thanks to home monitoring. They have been given a special SeCRet home monitoring box for this. The home monitoring box contains a blood pressure monitor, an oxygen meter and a thermometer. The patients then enter the results of their measurements into a special app.

More and more patients with chronic kidney disease are monitoring their blood pressure, body temperature and oxygen saturation at home. There is also the ambition to expand the home measuring equipment because kidney patients are regularly overweight and exercise little. By adding a pedometer and a scale to the SeCRet box, for example, healthy behavior can be stimulated.

Measurements at home reliable

Many kidney patients are followed for a long time. Think of patients who have had a kidney transplant or who have chronic kidney disease. They often have to go to the hospital for a check-up and the number of visits can be reduced by taking measurements at home. Internist-nephrologist Martijn van den Hoogen: ‘For this group of patients, for example, a blood pressure measurement is very important. It is much more reliable at home than in the outpatient clinic. Because what do you think happens when people rush out of the parking garage?’

Home monitoring box gives patients control

A team from Erasmus MC developed a home monitoring box especially for this group of patients. This immediately came in handy in corona time because Covid-19 was a major problem for kidney patients. The hope was that with the home monitoring box they would sound the alarm early in the event of problems. Internist-nephrologist Jacqueline van de Wetering: “In the home measurement app, patients enter the results of the measurements. The values ​​are then immediately digitally displayed in the electronic patient file HiX. That makes it clear for us and the patient: you can look at the trend and the course.”

Transplant Institute wants to join

This form of home monitoring is now being used more widely than just for Covid patients. A general home measurement program for kidney transplant patients started in August 2021. Currently 220 patients are using the SeCReT box and the next 200 boxes have been ordered. Van de Wetering’s greatest wish is that people can also measure values ​​such as kidney function and drug levels at home. Full outpatient consultations can then occasionally be replaced by a video consultation. Doctors and patients are satisfied with the home monitoring program. Other groups of internal medicine would like to participate and the Transplantation Institute also wants to join.

Kidney patients & dialysis

Also in the field of kidney dialysis, more and more hospitals are trying to offer more autonomy with regard to groups of kidney patients. One example At the Haga Hospital, we find 58 new dialysis machines at two locations of the dialysis center. According to those involved, these are easy to operate by patients and nurses. The silent machines are safe and there are fewer splash and puncture incidents. Patients can largely operate the system themselves if they wish, which gives them more autonomy.