Cadence and Providence have teamed up to offer remote patient monitoring and responsive virtual care to seven states’ clinics. The solution allows healthcare providers to remotely collect patients’ vital signs while they remain at home. The program aims to enhance chronic disease management through a combination of technology and a nurse practitioner-led clinical care team. The partnership plans to expand to include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care in 2024 while also supporting hypertension, congestive heart failure, and type 2 diabetes.
Providence, a nonprofit Catholic health system that covers seven states in the US, has partnered with health technology company Cadence to bring remote patient monitoring (RPM) and responsive virtual care to clinics across its footprint. The program’s goal is to give medical professionals the ability to remotely gather vital signs from patients who are still at home. With more than 900 clinics and 52 hospitals, Providence serves Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. Through its partnership with Cadence, the health system aims to provide an RPM solution and responsive virtual care program that will enhance chronic disease management by combining technology with a nurse practitioner-led clinical care team to review patient vital signs outside of clinical settings.
Providence’s Chief Executive of the Clinical Network, David Kim, MD, said the partnership would extend clinical teams into patients’ homes, allowing the health system to improve care for patients with chronic conditions while streamlining the patient experience. “Early clinical results and patient and provider satisfaction scores have been positive,” Kim continued.
The RPM program was initially implemented at two clinics in Washington state, St. Mary Cardiology and Lacey Family Medicine, in June 2022 to improve patient outcomes by integrating lifestyle changes and guideline-based medication management. Of the 300 patients participating in the program, 89% take vitals daily, and just 0.2% of remote encounters escalate to engagement with Providence clinicians.
In addition to supporting hypertension, congestive heart failure, and type 2 diabetes, Providence plans to add chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care to the program in 2024. The initiative will be extended across Washington service areas in 2023.
Providence patients registered in the Cadence program, according to Chris Altchek, founder and CEO of Cadence, are more involved in their care, and their clinicians receive assistance from a team that serves as an extension of their staff. He declared that the two teams would keep their attention on providing patients with chronic ailments with transformative results.
Recent studies have shown the potential of RPM solutions to provide various benefits. In a study published in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in March, COPD patients experienced significant benefits after remote cardiorespiratory monitoring. The study involved a retrospective analysis of unplanned hospitalizations using data from 126 patients. Researchers found that the RPM program led to a 65% decrease in the frequency of all-cause hospitalizations in the cohort.
