COVID-19 telemonitoring program helps reduce hospital admissions and ER visits

New Rochelle, NY, February 9, 2021–The rapid upscaling of a telemonitoring program in which health care providers performed daily telemedicine check-ins on COVID-19 patients faced a unique set of challenges. How these were resolved, and early outcomes are reported in the peer-reviewed journal

Telemedicine and e-Health

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“Kaiser Permanente’s Virtual Home Care Program (VHCP) was able to rapidly establish a telemedicine-based program for the management of COVID-19 positive patients in the DC and Baltimore Metro regions. Preliminary data suggest that such a program may be effective in keeping patients out of the hospital and/or emergency room,” stated James Shaw, MD, Med-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, and coauthors.

The researchers described three main challenges. The constant flow of providers into and out of the program. Challenges in the management of Spanish-speaking patients and the need for translators. The initial lack of an alert system in the pulse oximetry program to alert patients and providers when a patient registered a low oxygen reading.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity for telemedicine and telehealth to grow exponentially. Kaiser’s work in the DC Metro area is a testament to providers developing and implementing new ways in rapid fashion in order to maximize health care delivery,” says Charles R. Doarn, MBA, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Research Professor and Director of the Master of Public Health Program, Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Ohio.

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About the Journal

Telemedicine and e-Health


is an official journal of the American Telemedicine Association, Digital Health Canada, and the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. Edited by Charles R. Doarn, MBA,

Telemedicine and e-Health

is the leading international, peer-reviewed journal combining medicine, telecommunications, and information technology. Published monthly in print and online, the Journal covers telemedicine and telehealth applications that are playing an increasingly important role in health care, especially during the current pandemic and provides tools that are indispensable for home health care, remote patient monitoring, and disease management. It encompasses not only rural health and battlefield care, but nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and maritime and aviation applications. A sample table of contents and free issue may be viewed online

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (

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) is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. View a complete list of the firm’s 90 journals, books, and newsmagazines here.