Thursday, 16 April, 2020 – Vital medical resources will be freed up in regional Victoria as Bendigo Health becomes one of the first hospitals in Australia to roll-out telemonitoring which will be used for suspected COVID-19 patients. It has been tested on current geriatric patients to ensure its viability in the testing for readiness. The digital care application, teamplay myCare Companion ‘Pandemic’ delivered by one of the world’s leading medical technology companies Siemens Healthineers, allows clinicians to remotely prioritise and manage patients based on their clinical needs, and has the capability to be rolled out to any healthcare service across the country.
The cloud-based remote monitoring system, built on a proven secure platform, supplies doctors and nurses with a dashboard of daily updated symptoms and health vitals to remotely stay on top of their patients’ health. Symptom tracking and the use of monitoring devices, such as thermometers and pulse oximeters, will track whether the condition of the patient is deteriorating. This data will be collected and transmitted to the hospital via a secure network. The new solution also offers the remote care team the ability to securely communicate with the patient thus providing feedback and reassurance to patients who are being cared for while in home quarantine.
As hospitals across Australia continue to pivot their operations in preparation for a potential rise in COVID-19 patients, a critical resource concern remains the availability and access to beds in such a circumstance. In the worst-hit countries, hospitals have been overwhelmed and the contagious nature of Covid-19 has led to high rates of infections, as well as deaths, among healthcare workers. By enabling patients and supporting clinicians to manage cases at home, teamplay myCare Companion‘Pandemic’ will provide an infrastructure to alleviate pressure on essential facilities at Bendigo Health.
Bendigo Health is a 724-bed service that treats more than 49,000 inpatients on average each year, managing more than 52,000 emergency attendances in a catchment area that covers a quarter of the size of Victoria.
The teamplay myCare Companion ‘Pandemic’ application is built upon Siemens Healthineers teamplay myCare Companion chronic care . teamplay myCare companion-chronic care1, is designed to telemonitor patients with chronic heart failure at home. Professor Marc Budge, Geriatrician and Clinical Director of Integrated Care Services at Bendigo Health, said that the innovative remote monitoring solution will allow the hospital to provide the best possible medical care and advice to patients in the community while managing in-demand medical resources. “Australia is currently accelerating the provision of telehealth services to diagnose and care for patients in the community. Siemens Healthineers teamplay myCare Companion ‘Pandemic’ will provide a platform for Bendigo Health to more safely deliver patient care and support in the community whilst preserving inpatient beds for more serious presentations with COVID-19 infections. Importantly, we can also more effectively prevent hospital admission for those with chronic disease; a group at high risk of poorer outcomes in this pandemic” he said.
Professor Budge, the physician responsible for implementing Bendigo Health’s ‘Geri-Connect’ Service across the Loddon Mallee region of Victoria since 2017, will oversee delivery of the teamplay myCare Companion – ‘Pandemic solution’ at Bendigo Health. The Geri-Connect service currently provides in-person or telehealth assessments across more than 54 Residential Aged care facilities and 11 smaller regional Health services; many of whom had previously struggled to have any available Geriatrician input to their care.
Professor Budge added: “During this crisis, the teamplay myCare Companion ‘Pandemic solution’ will facilitate in-home monitoring for the increased numbers of Australians requiring intensive health professional oversight whilst laying the basis for the future provision of virtual care and monitoring in the community after this pandemic.”
Michael Shaw, Managing Director, Siemens Healthineers ANZ, said: “The unique application of this telemedicine platform represents the future of managing increased demands on the healthcare system. The teamplay myCare Companion ‘Pandemic solution’ will, in particular, give greater and safer control to doctors and nurses over managing vital medical resources in the fight against COVID-19. We are proud to support Bendigo Health to leverage telehealth services that ensure high-need or at-risk patients have access to the right treatment and at the right time”.
To enable hospitals across the country with potential access to the solution, the solution has been deployed in the cloud. This also means that implementation and subsequent use comes without additional burdens on hospital IT teams.
1 teamplay myCare Companion- Chronic care includes fully integrated monitoring devices and is pending TGA approval
Media Contacts
Thomas Skinner / Alex Kovacs
Red Agency on behalf of Siemens Healthineers
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alexandra.kovacs@redagency.com.au, +61 421 719 801
Sam Gallagher
Head of Communications,
Siemens Healthineers
sam.gallagher@siemens-healthineers.com
+61 428 249 545
About Siemens Healthineers
At Siemens Healthineers, our purpose is to enable healthcare providers to increase value by empowering them on their journey towards expanding precision medicine, transforming care delivery, and improving patient experience, all enabled by digitalizing healthcare. An estimated five million patients worldwide everyday benefit from our innovative technologies and services in the areas of digital health, diagnostic and therapeutic imaging, laboratory diagnostics and molecular medicine as well as and enterprise services. We're a leading medical technology company with over 120 years of experience and 18,500 patents globally. With over 50,000 employees in more than 70 countries, we'll continue to innovate and shape the future of healthcare.
In fiscal 2018, which ended on September 30, 2018, Siemens Healthineers generated revenue of €13.4 billion and adjusted profit of €2.3 billion and has about 50,000 employees worldwide.
Further information is available at www.siemens-healthineers.com.
About Bendigo Health
Bendigo Health is a leading regional health service, with around 4000 staff and a catchment area covering a quarter of the size of Victoria. The three main campuses of Bendigo Health are in Bendigo, with many services extended to regional settings including areas such as Mildura, Echuca, Swan Hill, Kyneton and Castlemaine. The organisation provides services in emergency, maternity, women’s health, medical imaging, pathology, rehabilitation, community services, residential aged care, psychiatric care, community dental, hospice, palliative care, cardiology, cancer services and renal dialysis to the people of the Loddon Mallee region. In addition to operating a large acute hospital, Bendigo Health offer subacute services including inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, a regional psychiatric service, residential care, specialist clinics, dialysis and a range of outreach services such as hospital in the home.