The Existing System
In many cases, monitoring is part of routine healthcare, for example, before or after surgery. Routine monitoring can reveal abnormal readings that need attention, but vital signs and other physiological readings often remain within normal parameters. Of course, we want patients to remain stable, but when all vital signs are normal, it raises the question: can patient monitoring be done in a more convenient and efficient way?
Under the existing system, there are a few ways of carrying out patient monitoring:
- the patient receives inpatient monitoring from a hospital ward
- a GP or District Nurse visits the patient in their home
- the patient attends their GP surgery or hospital outpatient clinic.
All of these options have considerable time and cost implications. Patients have to wait at home all day for a visiting nurse or doctor, travel to their GP surgery, or be admitted to or extend their stay in, hospital. The healthcare team might need to provide a hospital bed or clinic space and cover the time and cost of the clinicians carrying out the in-person monitoring.
To find a way around this problem, we created VCare Precision Monitoring.
What is VCare Precision Monitoring?
VCare Precision Monitoring is an easy-to-use, reliable remote monitoring system that provides clinical information for all stakeholders, including patients, hospital clinicians and GPs. It reduces the need for in-person monitoring by sending physiological readings from a patient’s wearable monitoring device to a central portal accessible by the clinical team.
Who Does It Help?
Any healthcare team that needs to monitor patients can benefit from the VCare Precision Monitoring system. However, we’ve found that hospital trusts, particularly, see significant advantages in adopting the VCare Precision Monitoring system.
It is no longer necessary for a patient to take up a hospital bed for pre- or post-op monitoring. This one factor alone improves the patient journey, increases bed availability, and reduces staffing pressures for hospital trusts and community-based practitioners.
The VCare system enables a patient’s early discharge under the watchful eye of their healthcare team using remote monitoring and our Virtual Ward model. VCare Precision Monitoring instantly picks up any concerning changes, and the patient and clinicians are alerted, enabling them to take action if necessary.
How Does It Work?
- The patient wears a Precision Monitoring Device, a small non-invasive device that straps to the upper arm (read more about the Precision Monitoring Device here).
- The monitoring device is paired with an app that can be accessed via tablet or mobile device.
- The device automatically and continually records vital signs.
- Pre-set parameters can be customised at the discretion of a clinician.
- The device immediately highlights when parameters are breached and alerts the relevant parties (patient and the clinical team).
- The clinician can then instantly respond with instructions for the patient, who must acknowledge that they have received the message.
- The whole clinical team can access recorded data for the purpose of a Virtual Ward round via video call to discuss the treatment plan with each other and with the patient.
VCare Customer Support
The VCare team has decades of experience working in different capacities in the healthcare sector, so we understand the needs of our customers. We provide full training on the VCare Precision Monitoring system. Our Precision Monitoring Device is pre-configured to work straight out of the box, but we can also provide patient support if necessary.
Once you’re all set up, we continue to provide ongoing support to ensure you and your patients are comfortable and confident using the monitoring device and system portal.
We know that urgent scenarios happen at any time of the day or night, so our support team is available to take your calls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We welcome your suggestions and feedback, and we use them to continually review and improve our service.
Regulations and Compliance
VCare Systems is an ISO27001 accredited company and a registered supplier on the Crown Commercial Service SPARK Framework, with MHRA and other regulatory approvals.
We’re also proud NHS approved suppliers of remote monitoring services, and as such, are fully compliant with all necessary patient data safety and information governance regulations.
Patients are in safe hands with VCare Systems.
If you’d like to know how VCare Precision Monitoring can work for your organisation, contact us to find out more.
