Illinois healthcare company Medline and digital health firm VitalTech are working together to bring virtual care and remote patient monitoring (RPM) to physician offices throughout the USA.

Telehealth adoption and usage by healthcare providers has grown significantly to offset a nearly 70% drop in in-person health care office visits.

VitalTech is a virtual care and RPM platform that helps physicians improve patient care through continuous patient monitoring that provides real-time data to guide care management. The HIPAA-compliant platform is said to hels improve patient outcomes at a lower cost while reducing readmission rates, providing billing output for the new CMS RPM CPT codes, and tracking time spent with patients for auditing and billing.

Recent changes to CMS that relaxed regulatory requirements for telehealth have enabled physicians to offer more reimbursable virtual care options to patients.

“As the Covid-19 pandemic persists, it has strained the in-person relationship between patients and healthcare providers,” said Steve Burns, executive vice president at Medline. “Through this partnership with VitalTech, we want to make it easier for our customers to continue providing exceptional care to their patients by offering a solution that creates a genuine virtual care relationship.”

The VitalTech RPM provides:

• Medical device integrations – Vitals can be collected through integrated Bluetooth Low Energy medical devices.
• Video and messaging – Enables multi-user video calls for virtual check-in and connects patients to their healthcare providers, caregivers and families.
• Nutrition and medication – Medication reminder push alerts are available and nutritional data can be logged through voice inputs or barcode scanning.
• Ability to manage patients by disease state – Patient-reported data enable practitioners to provide targeted care plans and assist in identifying patient risk factors. COPD, heart failure, diabetes, renal failure and obesity are conditions that are managed well with RPM.

In February 2020, less than one per cent of primary care visits were virtual. In April 2020 as the pandemic escalated in North America, telehealth accounted for 43% of all US primary care visits. Since then, that adoption has increased as healthcare providers look for sustainable alternatives in the face of the virus and federal government policy changes aimed at broadening access to telehealth.

“Medline’s nationwide scale and consultative relationships combined with our best-in-class remote monitoring platform will provide doctors and patients with a reliable solution for remote comprehensive care,” said Ernie Lance, executive vice president at VitalTech. “This is a great step forward for physician practices looking to provide effective and fast care to patients when Covid-19 or other health concerns restrict patient access to clinician facilities.”

Medline is a manufacturer, distributor and provider focused on improving the overall operating performance of healthcare. It works with both the USA’s largest healthcare systems and independent facilities across the continuum of care to provide clinical and supply chain resources for long-term financial viability in delivering high quality care. Headquartered in Northfield, Illinois, Medline has more than 27,000 employees worldwide and a fleet of nearly 1000 trucks, and does business in more than 90 countries.

VitalTech develops technologies that empower patients to care for their safety, health and wellness. It began as a biosensor technology company and has expanded to development of VitalCare, its integrated digital health platform. VitalCare simplifies workflows and supports connected care through remote patient monitoring. Critical data are collected on its devices and pushed via the cloud to user apps, family connect apps, care teams apps, administrative web portals and third-party integrations.