In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, heart failure teams at a Leicester NHS Trust had to find alternative methods for caring for their patients without visiting them for a face-to-face consultation. To support heart failure patients in the community the trust quickly deployed Clinitouch, a remote patient monitoring platform.

By early April 2020, just eight days after the first COVID-19 lockdown, the trust had already begun remote monitoring its first patient using Clinitouch.

Aims & Objectives

• To reduce unscheduled hospital admissions and re-admissions for heart failure patients
• To empower patients with knowledge and tools to help them self-manage their condition
• To provide continuity of care and support for heart failure patients in the community
• To minimise face-to-face contact with heart failure patients at high risk of getting Covid-19

How it works

• Patient - Identified by the heart failure specialist team. Patient is supplied with remote monitoring equipment. At home, patient answers heart failure related health questions and records blood pressure, weight, pulse rate and oxygen readings using Clinitouch
• Clinitouch - The platform has unique algorithms as per agreed local guidelines that automatically analyse and risk-score the data. It will highlight when any patient moves outside the agreed parameters
• Heart Failure Specialist Nurse - Remotely monitors the heart failure patients using the information the patients submit on Clinitouch. If a patient is flagged amber or red on Clinitouch, interventions are made

Key numbers

(Period - April 2020 – December 2022)

• 446 patients put onto Clinitouch⁽¹⁾
• 70.8 years mean age⁽¹⁾
• 160.3 days mean duration that patients were remotely monitored⁽¹⁾

The benefits

• The use of Clinitouch resulted in a reduction in patient red days. Red days are when patients require contact from the heart failure specialist team. Specifically, the number of red days decreased from 46% of patients being red on their first day on the service to 35% on their final day, representing a relative reduction of 22.5%⁽¹⁾
• The Leicester NHS Trust have continued to use Clinitouch as a means of supporting heart failure patients in the community

Dr Noel O’Kelly, Medical Director at Spirit Health comments:

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, managing high-risk patients was a significant challenge. Remote patient monitoring proved to be a safe and effective way of supporting heart failure patients at home. This experience has given confidence to continue offering this service, providing heart failure patients with alternative means of staying connected to their clinicians.”

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^{(1) Data on File Spirit Health. Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease & Heart Failure Covid-19 Data analysis December 22.}