Detroit, February 24, 2014 – Hospice of Michigan has partnered with Sensory Technologies of Canada, Inc. to improve palliative care for patients with life-limiting illnesses.
The nationally recognized leader in end-of-life care has launched a pilot program utilizing Sensory Technology’s eShift system – a unique mobile healthcare solution – for Detroit-area patients enrolled in At Home Support™. Developed more than a decade ago, At Home Support provides supportive care to patients with advanced chronic disease who are in the final 18-24 months of life
Utilizing eShift, one delegating nurse is able to monitor four or more patients in their homes from a remote setting, providing direction to certified nursing assistants or technicians who are already in the home and working with families. These support workers are trained to observe and report signs and symptoms via smartphone through a secure clinical portal for real-time assessment by the delegating nurse. In situations where more skill is required, the delegating nurse will dispatch a visiting nurse to the home.
HOM anticipates using eShift will allow it to:
- Improve quality of care for some of its most medically fragile patients
- Reduce hospital admissions, readmissions and unnecessary visits to the ER
- Provide better support and resources for family caregivers
- Help transition patients from acute-care settings to the comforts of home and family
“Hospice of Michigan has long been an early adopter of technology, and we are very pleased to begin utilizing eShift, to provide better, safer care for our patients,” said Robert Cahill, president and CEO of HOM. “Study after study shows that patients want the ability to stay in their homes as long as they are able.
“Yet our country faces an incredible nursing shortage that is expected to grow worse in the coming decades. eShift effectively uses technology to extend the reach of experienced nurses to the patient’s bedside through the hands of a certified nursing assistant or technician. This will allow senior nurses to remain in practice and share invaluable skills without the rigorous demands of travel and bedside care.”
HOM is the first U.S. healthcare provider to select eShift, which has a strong track record of success in Canada. HOM expects to extend its pilot program in the coming year to introduce eShift to other markets across the Lower Peninsula. On any given day, HOM provides palliative and hospice care for as many as 1,400 patients – including as many as 400 enrolled in At Home Support.
“We are delighted to partner with Hospice of Michigan to offer eShift to patients enrolled in its At Home Support program,” said Patrick Blanshard, CEO of Sensory Technology. “Our new model of care leverages technology to enable palliative nurses to support multiple patients in their homes. This gives HOMe the capacity to accelerate growth of it’s At Home Support program, increase system capacity and drive better patient outcomes.
Developed and launched in 2001, At Home Support provides a team of caring professionals who manage symptoms and pain while keeping patients in an environment where they feel the most comfortable. The service, which is currently available throughout Michigan, provides home visits and individualized medication and treatment plans, education about specific condition and guidance on treatment decisions, personal care and support with activities of daily living and 24- hour access to nurses who can answer all questions.
The program also offers a separate plan of care for the caregivers, who can find themselves unprepared to face the unique challenges of a long-term illness. Caregivers are provided with the tools, training and support they need to properly take care of their loved one.
Based in Ontario, Canada Sensory Tech is a developer and marketer of wireless smartphone- based enterprise systems for the Canadian community health care market. The privately held company supports private and government clients with unique med-tech solutions that enable new clinical service delivery models for the treatment of high-acuity patients outside of the hospital setting. This unique approach results in lowered costs, increased capacity and improved patient care.
eShift is a product of Sensory Technology’s patent-pending Community Care Manager Enterprise™, or CCMe. CCMe gives organizations and their community-based homecare service providers the ability to capture, track, access and analyze critical client care data.
About Hospice of Michigan
A nationally recognized leader in end-of-life care, Hospice of Michigan is the original – and largest – hospice in the state. The non-profit cares for more than 1,400 patients each day in 56 counties across Michigan, raising more than $4 million each year to cover the cost of care for the uninsured and underinsured. HOM offers a broad range of services to enhance the quality of life at the end of life, including At Home Support™, our advanced illness management program, community-based palliative care and pediatric care programs. HOM provides grief support and counseling, caregiver education and support, and education programs for physicians and healthcare professionals through its research, training and education arm, the Hospice of Michigan Institute. For more information, call 888.247.5701 or visit www.hom.org.
About Sensory Tech
A privately held Canadian corporation located in London, Ontario, Canada, Sensory Technologies was incorporated in 2005 for the purpose of developing and marketing mobile healthcare enterprise systems for the health care market. Sensory Technologies provides systems that gives Healthcare managers, payors and their respective service providers the ability to implement new models of patient care based on remote multi-disciplinary care teams while supporting the established models of traditional visiting and shift care. In addition to their expanded care team solutions, Community Care Manager Enterprise provides the ability to capture, track, access, and analyze critical client care data, giving clinicians and business management unprecedented opportunities to affect profound changes, based on relevant clinical data, across the entire homecare system. For more information, email sales@sensorytech.ca or visit www.eshiftcare.com/slides.