1. Sullivan County Public Health Services Telehealth Program Interventions to Reduce Re-Hospitalizations

2. SC PHS Telehealth Program Telehealth is designed to use technology to provide adjunctive education to patients and their family about their disease entity. Provides additional objective data which the healthcare provider can use to adjust medications, and monitor the patient’s progress.

3. SC PHS Telehealth Program Nationwide, the use of telehealth technology is widely available. The VA instituted telehealth regionally in 2003 and nationally in 2007. Currently, the VA program has 50,000 patients enrolled in their Telehealth Programs.

4. SC PHS Telehealth Program For CHHA patients, the targeted diagnoses are: coronary artery disease, hypertension, congestive heart disease, post coronary bypass graft (CABG)and diabetes.

5. SC PHS Telehealth Program Our goal is the reduction of Emergency Room utilization and/or unnecessary re-hospitalizations, For SCPHS this will translate to increased continuity of care of the patient.

6. SC PHS Telehealth Program In the future we hope to obtain a grant to offer telehealth monitoring to antepartum women with gestational diabetes and/or pregnancy induced hypertension. For this demographic we will use cell phones to transmit the TH information.

7. SC PHS Telehealth Program Currently, the TH program is in the education/marketing stage. Full implementation of our program is scheduled for mid-July 2012.

8. SC PHS Telehealth Program SPHNs can help ensure the success of the TH program by: Remind field RNs to identify appropriate potential TH patients. Reminding field RNs to hand in the Telehealth Risk Assessment tool at SOC.