Founded in 1852, Mount Sinai is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. The entire Mount Sinai health system has over 7,400 physicians, and 3,815 beds. In New York metropolitan area, the hospital has 8 campuses. Its expertise in population health, along with its service to socioeconomically, demographically and culturally varied populations, means Mount Sinai is uniquely positioned to take on the challenge of delivering high-quality care to underserved people.
However, the hospitals largest ambulatory cancer center is located in three immediately adjacent neighborhoods in Manhattan that represent a dramatic contrast in populations.
“East Harlem is an area of high poverty and is predominantly Hispanic and Black. Central Harlem also has a high poverty rate and is predominantly Black and Hispanic,” said Dr. Cardinale Smith, chief quality officer for cancer at Mount Sinai. “A high proportion of residents in both Harlems live in public housing.
“In contrast, the Upper East Side is one of the wealthiest areas in the country and predominantly white,” she added. “The healthcare disparities in the patients we care for were even more visible during the pandemic.”
Like many healthcare systems at the beginning of the pandemic, Mount Sinai saw a drastic drop in cancer screenings and treatment. By April 2020, Mount Sinai’s ambulatory and inpatient services department saw a 25% decrease in volume. It meant that many vulnerable patients were either not receiving or delaying cancer care, potentially putting their treatment plans off track, reports Healthcare IT News.
To improve virtual care and physician/patient communication, Mount Sinai chose Current Health’s remote patient monitoring solution.
Current Health’s device and platform helped to:
- Decrease readmissions by catching health deterioration early
- Enable more comprehensive care outside of the cancer center
- Prevent potential patient exposure to infection by providing more care virtually
- Bridge the digital health divide as telehealth engagement continued to rise
“To get started, patients just need to plug in the Home Hub into an outlet and all other monitoring devices are preconfigured and connected for the patient in the patient’s preferred language,” said Dr. Cardinale Smith.
There are numerous vendors of remote patient monitoring technologies on the health IT market today. But Mount Sinai selected Current Health over other players in the space for several reasons: the small device, which captures several vitals, custom configurability, and ease of setup, Smith noted. The vendor also provided the device, as well as the cellular connectivity needed to make sure patients are continually monitored, she added.
Current Health’s FDA-cleared wearable remote patient monitoring device uses AI to automatically monitor patients to help better determine health trajectory and allow clinicians to intervene earlier.
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“The Mount Sinai Health System works with innovative and leading-edge companies like Current to support our commitment to providing world-class patient care. Current’s continuous and proactive monitoring platform has the potential to alert us to patient deterioration faster and give our team data insights they can act on earlier,” said Dr. Scott Lorin, president of Mount Sinai Brooklyn.
