Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) now offers a program that allows even more patients the ability to recover at home by combining home nurse visits, virtual physician visits and enhanced remote monitoring. This new offering called LVHN@Home is part of a full suite of virtual offerings for LVHN patients including those who have COVID-19.
For more than 15 years, LVHN has utilized groundbreaking telehealth technology to support patients in the hospital and at home. We adapted our services quickly in March 2020 to provide care during the pandemic.
CARES remote patient monitoring
Continuous Ambulatory Remote Engagement Services (CARES) is a remote patient monitoring program that monitored more than 1,000 patients a day prior to the pandemic and now monitors more than 1,200 patients daily. Since April 2020, 2,779 people with COVID-19 have received kits for at home monitoring.
Each person in the program receives a customized kit with tools to record blood oxygen levels and temperature. CARES patients log in to MyLVHN, the LVHN patient portal, to record those data points and answer questions about their symptoms twice a day. Information is reviewed by a nurse on the LVHN CARES team. If needed, the nurse will reach out to discuss the patient’s condition or provide the information to a physician for further review. This service is available to patients throughout the health network.
LVHN@Home
LVHN has expanded its telehealth offering with LVHN@Home. When a patient comes to the emergency room, physicians determine next steps in care. If hospital services aren’t needed, but a patient requires care and enhanced monitoring, that can now be done from the comfort of a patient’s own home through LVHN@Home, saving the patient the costs associated with a hospital stay.
Patients receive a kit like with the CARES program, however LVHN@Home kits include items like a pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff and thermometer all with the technology to automatically submit data to LVHN. Patients use these items twice a day. Nurses review each patient’s data and can identify issues to prevent hospitalizations. A nurse either comes to the patient’s house or meets with the patient virtually each day. Patients also have access to speak with a nurse any time, day or night.
This new offering is particularly beneficial during the pandemic. “Most people with COVID-19 will recover as expected at home, but this helps us ensure that even more people are able to do just that,” says Robert Kruklitis, MD, PhD, LVHN Vice President of Transformation. “If a patient were to need additional medical attention, we are able to get them the care they need at the appropriate time and place. I’m so proud that we are able to offer this program to the Lehigh Valley. With these services, we are able to help many of our patients avoid hospitalization.”
The program began Dec. 23 and enrolls about 3-5 new patients each day. It’s available to people who live in Lehigh or Northampton counties as well as certain areas in Berks and Carbon counties. LVHN plans to expand LVHN@Home to patients who have other illnesses and conditions, including congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
COVID-19 virtual screening
Virtual screenings not only allow people to interact with providers from the comfort of their own home, the service helps reduce the spread of COVID-19. During the screening, our medical professionals determine if patients should receive testing. Virtual screening options available to people who think they may have COVID-19 include:
- E-Visits (detailed questionnaire visit submitted to a provider) by visiting MyLVHN.org or the MyLVHN app
- MyLVHN Nurse Information line, 1-888-402-LVHN
- LVHN Telehealth Video Visits through the MyLVHN app
Virtual screenings and urgent care telehealth are available to patients anywhere in Pennsylvania via the MyLVHN app.