The idea for home monitoring with an app was conceived when a ‘waterfall of patients’ entered the hospital during the first corona wave, says lung specialist Renske Vorselaars of the St. Antonius Hospital Nieuwegein. She is jointly responsible for the implementation of the health app Luscii.
Bed shortage
“There was a shortage of beds and great need because of the many corona patients,” says Vorselaars. “Once those patients have recovered, they have to stay in hospital for days to deplete their oxygen and they have to be monitored. We thought that this monitoring could also be done at home if the patients had an app and a pulse oximeter – an oxygen meter. “
Within two weeks, this idea was turned into a program in the existing health app Luscii, in which recovering corona patients report their oxygen levels and their temperature twice a day. Just from their own home. They also have to fill in a questionnaire daily about any complaints they have.
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A team of interns, under the supervision of a pulmonologist, keeps an eye on this data in the hospital in a dashboard. “We keep an eye on trends and are alerted if anything is exceeded”, explains Vorselaars. “The team regularly calls patients and patients can also submit a callback request themselves in the app.”
The latter fulfills a great need of patients, she says. “We noticed that the patients had a lot of questions after their admission anyway. They can ask the interns and that gives a feeling of safety.”
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Fewer days in hospital
During the first corona wave, 33 patients of the St. Antonius Hospital used the app, which together resulted in a significant reduction in the number of admission days: an average of five per patient. Of those 33 people, three patients were readmitted without emergency on the basis of their submitted data. All three have since been recovered.
Because the app was positively received by users (97 percent of the users were very satisfied with this form of monitoring, a survey showed), all corona patients who have been discharged from St. Antonius Hospital are now allowed to use the app. Even if they no longer need oxygen.
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Maasstad Hospital, UMC Utrecht, Jeroen Bosch Hospital and Albert Schweitzer Hospital have now also started using the app. Another seven other hospitals have expressed interest.
Vorselaars hopes that even more hospitals will report. “Not only is it pleasant for patients to be able to recover in their own home situation, the app also ensures that we have more space in the hospital for new patients, which prevents regular care having to be canceled.”
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