Athelas Nurse Stories highlight the benefits of preventative care that Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) can bring to your facility. RPM, when combined with Athelas clinical staff review, has helped save numerous patients’ lives and has prevented thousands of dollars in medical expenses.‍

Summary

This week’s nurse story highlights a patient who discovered through his enrollment in Athelas RPM that he had crisis-level hypertension. This early discovery allowed the patient to seek treatment at the ER and avoid a serious health crisis.

Background of Patient’s Medical Situation

In May 2020, an Athelas RPM user recorded a borderline hypertensive blood pressure reading on his at-home BP cuff. Our nurse, Mia, picked up on the borderline reading and contacted the patient. During their nurse review time, the patient mentioned that in addition to the reading, he had been experiencing routine headaches. They both agreed it would be wise for him to schedule a meeting with this Primary Care Physician. 

At his appointment, the patient’s physician conducted a thorough examination. In office, the patient’s blood pressure was below the threshold for hypertensive. Given how close the patient was to being hypertensive, the physician made lifestyle recommendations and told the patient to keep a close eye on his blood pressure. The doctor even took the precautionary step of scheduling a follow-up meeting to ensure the patient was tracking towards healthy outcomes. 

The escalation

The patient returned home and continued to test with Athelas’s blood pressure cuff.

That’s when matters took a turn for the worse. 

The patient’s blood pressure began to increase, reaching a peak of 200 (systolic) over 100 (diastolic) on his Athelas blood pressure cuff. The patient didn’t know this, but a reading above 180 systolic is considered ‘hypertensive crisis.’ And left untreated, hypertenstive crisis can lead to a stroke. The clock was ticking.

Our nurse, Mia, immediately made attempts to confirm the blood pressure readings by having him retest. But she couldn’t get a hold of him. She then escalated the readings to the patient’s physician.

The Resolution

Fortunately, the story has a happy ending. The patient ended up calling Mia back, and after retesting confirmed that he was in hypertensive crisis. He went straight to the ER, where his hypertension was brought under control with medication. The patient continued to use Athelas to monitor his blood pressure for further complications by taking his blood pressure daily, discussing results with Athelas nurses monthly, and tracking changes through the Athelas patient app.

This story illustrates the power of remote patient monitoring. Our doctors can’t monitor us all the time, and the limited snapshot they get from office visits often doesn’t paint the whole picture. The patient’s doctor did everything by the book, but the patient’s condition escaped detection. Athelas RPM fills in the gaps in a patient’s health story and uses technology to monitor patients’ health in a way that only recently became possible, empowering doctors to keep their patients healthy between visits.

"This story illustrates the power of remote patient monitoring. Our doctors can’t monitor us all the time, and the limited snapshot they get from office visits often doesn’t paint the whole picture."