By Jon Kamerman

With populations growing and aging around the world, healthcare systems will have to care for an ever-increasing number of patients with complex needs. Over the next ten years, hospitalizations are projected to increase by 11%. As care teams work to grapple with the ever-increasing volume of patients and decreasing bedspace, they are also dealing with continued staffing shortages and high rates of overwhelm. When combined, hospitals are facing an unprecedented strain on resources and clinicians.

This bottleneck around acute care is not sustainable, so we as an industry must identify and pursue new ways to move patients out of the hospital sooner, without compromising on the quality of care. Finding solutions for these issues can seem challenging, but what if the answer is less complex than the problem itself?
Hospital-to-home is a relatively new and promising concept that is enabling patients to be discharged earlier and return to their homes to safely recover, aided by regular monitoring of their health through tech like wearable monitors, patches and implantable devices. We’re already seeing these strategies positively impact outcomes for patients with certain cardiac conditions, while also solving for hospital staffing challenges. So, how do we maintain this momentum and continue to improve patient care and clinical workflow – especially in other areas of healthcare beyond cardiology?

The answer lies in the way healthcare organizations manage patient data. By applying the latest monitoring technologies and analytics to the data health systems are already collecting in the hospital, healthcare leaders can identify new groups of patients that can be discharged earlier and continue their safe recovery more comfortably in their own homes. For healthcare organizations, these ambulatory monitoring insights can instill further confidence in clinicians that care is being delivered safely and effectively within these new clinical pathways and ultimately, enable health systems to deliver better care at scale. However, these benefits are only possible if an organization’s data collection and technological infrastructure is properly set up – with the patient at the center.

How cardiac ambulatory monitoring is changing the patient care pathway
Cardiac conditions are on the rise and are a key contributor to the steady increase in hospitalizations. By 2050, 61% of adults in the United States are expected to have cardiovascular disease. As cardiology departments explore ways to evolve care to manage this increase, remote monitoring insights have demonstrated that it’s safe for patients with conditions like heart failure, stroke, AFib and post-TAVR to go home earlier, while being safely monitored from afar as they live their lives.

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