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Contact: Meagan Kowalski

Iredell Home Health is now helping patients to improve their health and independence with telehealth technology. The easy-to-use system allows patients to relay vital information to their healthcare team on a daily basis from the privacy of their own home. This allows Iredell Home Health to respond to the healthcare needs of telehealth patients more efficiently and detect possible health issues before they lead to hospitalization.

"Telehealth gives our patients a more active role in their own healthcare," said Ronette Starnes, Director of Iredell Home Health. "They can be more invested in and informed about their condition, while the consistent monitoring provides a peace of mind."

Once a patient is identified as a telehealth candidate, a nurse will personally deliver the system and show them how it works. The telehealth technology package includes a tablet device, scale, blood pressure cuff and a finger pulse blood oximeter. It gives step-by-step audio and text instructions, walking the patient through checking their weight, blood pressure and other vital statistics. The entire process usually takes less than five minutes. The data is instantly sent to a nurse who can check for any warning signs of a medical issue, follow up with the patient and/or alert a physician.

Iredell Home Health is primarily using telehealth to monitor patients with congestive heart failure, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

"Too often, people with chronic conditions leave the hospital, only to return a few days or weeks later because they didn't have access to proper medical care at home," said Starnes. "The telehealth program is now part of our strategy to break that cycle as a supplement to traditional home health visits with a nurse. By consistently getting accurate information on our patients' conditions, we can catch problems before they become serious and prevent hospital readmissions."

Iredell Home Health is a certified, accredited nonprofit agency providing home health care for
people of all ages who are homebound due to illness, injury, or disability. Home Health care canbe an appropriate alternative to hospitalization or nursing home placement. Iredell Home Healthprovides services for Iredell and all of its surrounding counties. For more information, call 1-888-872-6552.