New virtual care options are allowing people like Natalie Richardson to not only get the care they need in the comfort of their own home, but avoiding unnecessary hospital visits.
Living the last 15 years of her life with chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD) has meant a lot of trips to her doctor, specialists and the like.
But now, Natalie is able to keep an eye on her own symptoms and record her levels on the Remote Patient Monitoring app for a clinician to check.
"It's so much easier and it's on hand," she said.
"If I'm feeling unwell, I'll just put on the blood pressure machine or whatever I need to do and it tells me.
"It saves waiting and booking an appointment and getting into the doctor, which is hard sometimes."
Bendigo Health, along with five other health services across the Loddon Mallee region, are now offering patients a chance to utilise the tool.
Bendigo Health’s Hospital Admission Risk Program (HARP) clinicians are able to use Remote Patient Monitoring to assist with educating clients and monitor observations to detect early signs of clinical deterioration.
Registered nurse Megan Carroll, who is Natalie’s Care Coordinator, said the easy to use app was an exciting addition to tools she can use with clients as part of their care planning.
"It means every day I can come into work, open up my computer, I can open up my dashboard and then look at people's clinical observations and make decisions about whether I need to call them or not," she said.
"Our team is about teaching people what your illness is and how to self-manage it, how to be independent, how to have a better quality of life.
"When you deteriorate, if your deterioration is severe then your hospital stay is longer, your recovery time is longer, and you may not fully recover back to your previous level of function.
"Intervening early shortens your illness and then you are back to normal quickly."
The remote patient monitoring initiative started in November last year as part of the state government funded Better at Home program and has helped 130 patients manage their chronic condition or monitor their diabetes during pregnancy.
That number is expected to exceed a thousand within the next year.