Technology is a tool to enable or facilitate solving a problem or making a process more efficient. In telehealth technology - whether it be a remote patient monitor (RPM) for acquiring and transmitting patients’ vital signs, a blue-toothed glucometer relaying patients’ blood sugars or even an app that allows a wound to be photographed and remotely transmitted - it is still, simply a tool. Telehealth technology is a means for enhancing patient care delivery, engagement and education.
My Corstrata co-founder, Joe Ebberwein, and I had the privilege to work for a home health care organization known as a “pioneer” in the use of telehealth. As early adopters of RPM, we quickly realized that monitors would sit on the shelf if their use was not embedded into our patient workflows, including holding staff accountable for their use. Behavior change in an organization is equally as challenging as evoking a behavior change in a “non-compliant” patient! But, It must begin at the top - leadership must embrace and support the change and hardwire accountability for that change throughout the organization. As we travel the country speaking and consulting, it is this one problem that rings true in all provider settings with regards to telehealth technologies - how to drive adoption. Visit this link for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Module on Change Management which provides an excellent roadmap with associated tools to assist healthcare organizations with this process.
At Corstrata, we partner with healthcare organizations including home health agencies, hospices and skilled nursing facilities to provide access to wound experts via telehealth, mobile health, and video technologies. Our previous experience taught us that in addition to providing our clients and their staff with the Corstrata mobile app, we must also assist clients with hardwiring virtual wound management into their processes. Our implementation and training program are customized by client to as determined by an initial provider assessment. That assessment informs us how to effectively and efficiently integrate our services. By doing so, we are able to provide our clients with results - better wound care at a lower cost.
Corstrata utilizes mobile technologies to create access to its board-certified wound care specialists to produce a return on investment for our customers. Corstrata assists providers in proper assessment of wounds during the initial assessment upon admission - whether the OASIS C2 in home health or the MDS in the skilled nursing facility. Additionally, Corstrata wound experts collaborate with providers to develop a wound program that includes evidence based, best practice wound treatments, staff education, pressure ulcer prevention program, and wound formulary redesign. Corstrata provides wound image and video consults that include accurate identification of the wound type and associated staging, precise wound measurement, and recommended treatment and wound dressing.
Contact us today for Expert Wound Care. Anywhere.
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