Michael McGillion, director of PROTECT LAB and assistant professor at the School of Nursing at Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, is speaking at the HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition this week in Las Vegas on effective hospital-to-home (H2H) postoperative care management. McGillion sat down with MobiHealthNews to discuss his talk.
MobiHealthNews:How prevalent are postoperative deaths and complications?
Michael McGillion:The international VISION study demonstrated that a third of surgical patients face major complications such as myocardial injury, bleeding and sepsis, with 1.5% mortality and 7.5% readmission within 30 days.
MHN: What does H2H postoperative care management do?
McGillion: H2H postoperative management featuring virtual care with patient remote automated monitoring (VC-RAM) supports patients through the recovery process by providing continuous connection to immediately available and responsive nurses and physicians. Interaction with these professionals is through a series of scheduled and unscheduled (i.e., as needed) virtual visits to ensure regular assessment, support and action, as needed.
MHN:How effective is VC-RAM technologies that provide real-time alerts to clinicians?
McGillion: The PVC-RAM 1 trial showed that VC-RAM, with real-time alerts to clinicians, can significantly increase drug error detected and correction and improve postoperative pain after recovery. The trial also found through post hoc analyses that in centers with high adherence to vital signs thresholds and escalation of care from nurses to physicians, VC-RAM reduced the risk of post-discharge acute hospital care, brief acute hospital care and visits to emergency departments.
MHN: What does your H2H program do? Has the program been able to transform postoperative care by promoting earlier discharge and reducing readmissions, unscheduled care and length of stay?
McGillion:Our H2H program is now a fully integrated research and operations program. Our hospital administrative data support continued reductions in index length of hospital stays, reduced readmissions and decreased emergency department visits. We continue to work on our H2H model to enhance efficiency and maximize impact.
MHN: What are some of the operational challenges experienced by implementers of H2H programs in perioperative medicine and oncology?
McGillion:Key challenges include operations and logistics management. Effective H2H featuring VC-RAM requires timely patient monitoring equipment delivery and return to hospital for processing, which can pose challenges when using external courier services. Additional challenges in Canada include ensuring stable nurse staffing models and the need for policies to support physician remuneration for virtual care.
Michael McGillion's session, "Revolutionizing Healthcare: The Future of Hospital-to-Home and Patient Monitoring," is scheduled for Thursday, March 6, at 12:45 p.m. at HIMSS25 in Las Vegas.