During the Home Care Association of NY’s Annual Meeting, the Nascentia Health team joined HRS to offer an overview of their telehealth and RPM program. HRS VP of Business Development, Rich Curry, was joined by Nascentia Health VP of Patient Services, Gail Carmichel, QA/Performance Improvement and Telehealth Program Manager, Jennifer Allen, and Telehealth Analyst, Patrick Forget, PT, DPT. They covered topics ranging from operationalizing your telehealth and RPM program to Patrick’s unique role as a telehealth analyst.
Offering telehealth and RPM as their standard of care, the Nascentia team has focused their program around management of CHF, COPD, diabetes, post-operative, and COVID-19 patient populations. Their daily patient census consists of 900+ patients, and more than half of their adult patient census is monitored with telehealth.
The Role of the Telehealth Analyst
Nascentia implemented telehealth with the goals of decreasing in-person visits and increasing virtual visits. They’ve accomplished this by having a dedicated telehealth analyst responsible for offering one-on-one support and facilitating meetings between their clinical teams and their patients.
In Nascentia’s case, their telehealth analyst is a Doctor of Physical Therapy by trade. Patrick Forget embodies a very significant role in their program. Responsible for deep analysis of patient data, Patrick uses his experience, and data from the telehealth platform, to recognize trends and work with clinicians to get ahead of potential exacerbations. It’s one of the reasons their program is so successful.
The Process of Data Analysis
When a patient submits their vitals through the HRS telehealth platform, their data is tracked within the clinical portal, HRS’ ClinicianConnect. When a patient’s vitals are out of normal range or trending slightly different for a period of time, Patrick receives a red flag from the system. After a one-on-one meeting with the clinical team, he takes a deeper analysis of the patient’s data and can make suggestions to the team on how to proceed. This includes medication reconciliation and increased video visits to avoid exacerbations or hospital admission.
“I want to reiterate that this is a collaborative role—not to take the place of our clinicians. We work to have a balance between recommendations versus actions the clinicians can take. Once the review occurs, I work with clinicians to assess and triage patients via phone or video conferencing. Engaging the clinician in the process is important so they’re informed for future conversations."
- Patrick Forget, Telehealth Analyst at Nascentia Health
Analyzing data and trends doesn't only help the patient—it helps the clinician as well. The Telehealth Analyst offers data-driven insights, second opinions, and an added layer of patient care. The clinical team at Nascentia trusts that Patrick can accurately analyze the data and offer a second opinion if needed. Telehealth data helps the Nascentia team understand a patient’s lifestyle, environment, daily routines, and care management plan.
Building an A+ telehealth team is crucial for telehealth program success and longevity. While the Telehealth Analyst role is not a stand-alone role in every telehealth program, it’s certainly one that can benefit patients, clinicians, and help to drive telehealth success.
