Project Objective: The objectives of this project were to develop a set of HIPAA compliant mobile apps and web-based applications that allows hospital staff to monitor their most at-risk patients and provide a simple, manageable tool that is easy for both patients and staff.
Project Background:
Originally designed to address interpersonal messaging (Like SMS) and email security, the system grew to encompass cloaking posts and tweets in social media. In 2014, UThisMe, LLC (UTM) partnered with Columbia Memorial Hospital in extending their technology to healthcare environments: UTM: Healthcare is a self-contained communication app for hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, and hospice agencies.
UThisMe (UTM) looked to Troy Web Consulting to build a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) system that would assist in monitoring patients at risk of readmission after being discharged with critical medical conditions. The main focus of this system was patients discharged with COPD, Congestive Heart Failure, or Pneumonia but has been expanded to support other patient populations as well as Covid-19 monitoring.
The goals of this initiative were:
Assist hospital staff to monitor patients who have been discharged after treatment for CHF, COPD
Eliminate chargebacks to hospital reimbursements by 30-day re-admittance of chronically sick patients - Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP)
Implement a turnkey Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) solution for a variety of healthcare scenarios
The Challenge:
The components of this project included:
iOS mobile client app
Web-based dashboard
Server application to respond to patient daily check-ins, dashboard visualizations, remote requests and managing a database
Data received on the server is encrypted, persistent, and meets HIPAA compliant standards
The system needed to have the capabilities of recording patients’ answers to health-related questions and relaying them to hospital staff, sending care alerts, and supporting input from certain BlueTooth Low Energy (BLE) biometric devices. Additionally, the patient interface needed to be especially simple and easy to navigate in order to accommodate elderly or disabled patients. Troy Web Consulting worked closely with UTM on testing the application with a small group of beta testers before distributing it to larger medical facilities.
Business Impact: The hospital previously used other messaging to monitor patients’ recovery. The system built by Troy Web Consulting makes it easier for patients to report their information and hospital staff to check daily on patients’ status, all while ensuring the security of sensitive patient information. The integrated alert system is also “reliable and secure” and serves as a way to alert a patient’s caregiver of any complications. When asked for feedback on how the project went, the UTM team said that “the quality of the UX design, software development, and deployment by Troy Web of the integrated system led to a short learning curve for patients and staff during the rollout of the projects. This was crucial in pushing out updates and communicating the feedback received from users directly to the product.”