The impact of telehealth monitoring on acute care hospitalization rates and emergency department visit rates for patients using home health skilled nursing care.

This article describes the design and results of a study to demonstrate the impact of telemonitoring on acute care hospitalization (ACH) and emergency department (ED) visit rates for a Medicare-certified home health agency (HHA). Sociodemographic characteristics did not significantly differ between patients in the baseline, control, and intervention groups. Patients in the telemonitoring group had a statistically lower rate of ACH and ED visit rates. Telemonitoring may be an effective strategy for HHAs to reduce hospitalization and ED visits for patients with cardiac and/or respiratory conditions.