Regional VNA wins telemonitoring grant

The Gardner Visiting Nursing Association, which serves clients in Fitchburg, recently received a $30,000 grant from Fallon/OrNda Community Health Fund of Greater Worcester Community Foundation for in-home monitoring units.

According to CEO Elaine Fluet, the grant money will be used to purchase a portion of health telemonitors as part of the Gardner VNA's goal to provide telemonitoring services to home health patients.

"We are excited to move into this state-of-the-art monitoring in an effort to reduce re-hospitalizations and improve patient outcomes," she said.

Fluet noted that these units would allow our nurses to monitor patients on a daily basis without having to physically visit the home.

"We serve 24 cities and towns in the majority of Worcester County and the North Quabbin area, so for us to have the ability to monitor patients right in our office will have an immeasurable benefit to our patients," she said.

Types of conditions that would benefit from the home monitoring system include congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, myocardial infarction, recent cardiac surgery, diabetes and coagulation deficits.

"The benefits of this program from a medical point of view are numerous," Fluet said. "We will be able to deliver vital sign data, trending and graphs to our physicians in an effort to prevent any medical crisis, provide patients with instant access to this same data, and notify patients if results are out of the norm so they can make immediate changes to their activities."