Summary

Integrated Family Medical Center (IFMC) offers solutions for all healthcare needs. Dr. Kalpana Desai, M.D. augments traditional medical practices and advanced technologies with natural or holistic services such as lifestyle modifications and orthomolecular supplements. This approach enables her to offer more extensive and comprehensive treatment strategies to improve the health of the whole body while relieving a variety of conditions from general wellness care to chronic conditions and anti-aging care. IFMC patients can take an active role in their health care.

Challenge

Dr. Desai explained that she treats many geriatric patients in her practice, and for this patient population, often an in-office visit is not an adequate level of care as a standalone: “HealthSnap’s Virtual Care Management programs allow for the Care Navigator Nurse and patient to interact every month, and this dialogue allows me, as the provider, to take action if needed in order to prevent conditions from potentially escalating.” 

Prior to implementing HealthSnap’s Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Chronic Care Management (CCM) programs at IFMC, Dr. Desai would discuss patients’ chronic conditions with them during in-office visits, but she did not have a consistent solution for monitoring patients in between office visits. She noted that because she has developed strong relationships with her patients over time, once she was ready to roll out HealthSnap’s virtual care management programs, her patients were very open to enrolling and participating in RPM and CCM as an extension of her practice.

Program Highlights

Dr. Desai explained, “Patient feedback has been very satisfying and the great rapport that HealthSnap’s Care Navigator Nurses have developed with both patients and myself, as the provider, have established continuity of care.” She said that HealthSnap came highly recommended to her before implementing the programs and she is delighted that her experience with the team has been a very positive one: “So far, HealthSnap’s team has been very helpful and they are always open to suggestions.”

Results

In terms of clinical results, Dr. Desai noted that in the two years since implementing HealthSnap, she has noticed outcomes improvements ranging from her patients’ blood pressure readings to their diabetes management. She also noted that she has seen fewer Urgent Care visits and hospitalizations across her patient population.

She also shared that she noticed that her patients appreciate having the additional support of their Care Navigator Nurses. Patients have shared with her that they look forward to speaking with their nurse and the rapport they build by working with the same HealthSnap nurse consistently.

• The average for all hypertensive IFMC patients using RPM for blood pressure monitoring showed a 12-point decrease in Systolic (p < 0.0001) and a 7-point decrease in Diastolic (p < 0.0001), along with a 5-point decrease in pulse pressure (p < 0.001).
• Among those with stage 2 hypertension, there was a decrease in Systolic pressure by 14 points (p < 0.0001), Diastolic pressure by 8 points (p < 0.0001), and a decrease in pulse pressure of 6 points (p < 0.01).

To provide context, traditional self-monitoring of blood pressure, combined with counseling and education, averages only a 3.2-point decrease in systolic pressure and a 1.6-point decrease in diastolic (Tucker, et al 2017). A recent study by the Blood Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration (2021) in Lancet revealed that just a 5-point decrease in systolic pressure reduced cardiovascular events by 10%. These results exemplify the effectiveness of IFMC’s use of the RPM system.

In terms of financial ROI, Dr. Desai expressed that implementing HealthSnap’s Virtual Care Management programs has not only improved patient outcomes and engagement but has also been successful in improving revenue streams for the practice. Overall, the program has been a win-win: “Patients are happy and engaged. They are seeing improvements in outcomes. HealthSnap has contributed to our ability to provide comprehensive, innovative, and holistic approaches to chronic condition management.”