KHSC looks to enhance remote monitoring and patient experience with SeamlessMD

Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) has launched a pilot of SeamlessMD, a Digital Care Journey platform that is being adopted by leading health systems across North America to enhance the delivery of digital care.

For KHSC, SeamlessMD will help deliver scalable remote monitoring, enhance patient satisfaction and education, and achieve automated collection of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs). At this time, KHSC – consisting of Hotel Dieu Hospital and Kingston General Hospital, the Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario, and a research institute – is rolling out the Digital Care Journey platform for patients undergoing hip and knee replacement surgeries.

The organization has seen nearly a 50 per cent reduction in the length of stay for joint surgery patients as part of a larger initiative, which includes the deployment of SeamlessMD.

“Our goal has been to get more of our hip and knee replacement patients home the day of their surgeries, and to do that in a way that ensures they feel safe and comfortable,” shared Dr. Steve Mann, orthopedic surgeon at KHSC. “Many patients are very keen on the idea of avoiding a night in the hospital but are apprehensive about what to expect immediately after surgery. The SeamlessMD app has helped to proactively address many of the questions or concerns patients have at home by reassuring them that what they’re experiencing is normal and expected. It also offers a convenient way for patients to communicate with the nurses who make follow-up phone calls when needed. In general, patient feedback has been very positive.”

With SeamlessMD, patients undergoing surgery at KHSC are guided pre- and post-surgery via personalized, interactive education, progress-tracking, and post-op symptom monitoring using their own device (e.g. smartphone, tablet, computer). After surgery, patients can also self-report data such as pain scores, symptoms, range-of-motion, and opioid consumption, and share photos of their wounds through the platform remotely. Meanwhile, care teams can monitor patients on dashboards and receive alerts as well as access alerts, allowing for faster intervention for patients at risk and the delivery of better care.

Dr. Bob Connelly, Program Medical Director of Pediatrics at KHSC, experienced SeamlessMD firsthand when he went through a total hip replacement surgery at KHSC. Speaking about SeamlessMD’s pre- and post-surgery education and tracking, Dr. Connelly shared that he decided to use the SeamlessMD digital care platform and that “it made it easier to find the information I needed about my surgery. I liked how it gave me a countdown to my surgery date, helping me focus on my preparations. After my surgery, I continued to refer to it and used it to do things like track my use of pain medication and snap a picture of my incision site when I had questions about how red it was.”

Patient feedback has been very positive, with 93 per cent of KHSC patients reporting that SeamlessMD helped them feel less worried before surgery and 98 per cent reporting feeling more confident at home after surgery. Patients have also recognized how the platform helps the health-care system deliver more efficient care, with one patient sharing, “With our health-care system under significant pressure and with limited staffing resources, I felt SeamlessMD did a great job keeping me up to date and it made me feel confident that if I did have a problem, I would be able to connect with someone quickly for answers and or an explanation.”

“We are excited to partner with KHSC in their mission to transform surgical care, supporting their goals of improving patient education and clinical outcomes,” said Dr. Joshua Liu, CEO and Co-founder, SeamlessMD. “We recognize KHSC’s commitment to further quality of care as we continue to enable care teams to better monitor patients outside the hospital while helping patients get home sooner and feel more satisfied across their recovery journey.”