Grant Funds Telehealth for Inner City Family Health Center

One of the goals of Cleveland Clinic’s Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center is to help residents in the East Cleveland neighborhood manage chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure. The family health center received a boost from the Verizon Foundation last year when it landed a $75,000 grant to integrate wireless technology into the medical setting.

When applying for the grant, Michele Reali-Sorrell, RN, clinical care coordinator at the family health center, met with her team of caregivers to determine how they could leverage wireless technology to benefit patients. They decided a tool to help patients track their health at home would be advantageous. “We have a problem with accuracy and consistency of reporting, particularly with blood pressure and blood glucose levels,” says Reali-Sorrell. “Patients bring in readings on the back of envelopes or paper towels. It’s hard to follow them.”

Using the grant money, the family health center partnered with BL Healthcare in Foxboro, Mass., to offer patients healthcare access devices to monitor vital signs and other health information and consult with physicians and nurses from home. In June 2013, 15 patients with diabetes and hypertension received wireless touchscreen tablets. Each day, they entered their weight, blood pressure, pulse oximeter readings and blood sugar levels into the tablets, then staff at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center monitored the information online. If any figures were outside acceptable parameters, caregivers initiated a video-conference call with the patient to discuss the results.

The telemedicine program has helped patients. For example, a nurse realized that one patient’s blood pressure was not controlled during certain times of the day. She consulted with a physician and the health center’s pharmacist to adjust medications. The patient visited the health center, received new medicine and was instructed to take it earlier in the evening. Now his blood pressure is normal. Another patient called in saying he did not feel well. His pulse ox reading was 93 percent. A nurse encouraged him to visit the health center’s Express Care facility, where he received a breathing treatment and a nebulizer for home. The next day his pulse ox reading was 98 percent.

The grant from the Verizon Foundation funded one year of the telehealth program. BL Healthcare extended its relationship with the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Health Center, providing access to free tablets and software for three more months. The family health center is now conducting an Institutional Review Board (IRB) project studying the effectiveness of telemedicine for heart failure patients. Three groups of 10 patients will each use the tablets and monitoring system for four weeks, then data will be analyzed.

“This is the future of medicine,” says Reali-Sorrell. However, she stresses that technology cannot stand alone. “Technology supports the care we provide patients,” she says. “But it still comes down to making that one-on-one connection with patients.”