Home monitoring for acutely unwell patients being managed at home as part of a virual ward care pathway: a feasibility study

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Acutely unwell patients receiving care from the Oxford University Hospital (OUH) acute hospital-at-home services; Signs and Symptoms

• Registration Number: ISRCTN11298549
• Lead Sponsor: niversity of Oxford

Brief Summary

Not available

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2024-02-12
• Last Update Posted: 15 July 2024
• Study Completion: 2025-01-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Ongoing
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 35

Inclusion Criteria

1. The AAU clinical team has determined it is clinically appropriate to manage the patient at home and the patient will be admitted to the Hospital at Home virtual ward
2. Acutely ill (a deterioration in health that has taken place over days or weeks) and assessed as requiring diagnostic tests and treatments including the following interventions (oxygen, fluids, diuretics, intravenous antibiotics) that can be delivered at home.
3. Assessed as having at least one of the following diagnoses (multiple acute problems may present together):
3.1. Lowerrespiratorytractinfection
3.2. Cellulitis
3.3. Urinary tract infection
3.4. Systemic evidence of acute infection but unclear primary source of infection
3.5. Acute Kidney Injury due to dehydration, infection, medication, or heart failure
3.6. Heart failure with acute fluid overload
4. Willing and able to go home with a skin contact vital-sign monitoring system (chest patch)
5. Resides within the area served by an acute hospital at-home service
6. Participant is EITHER;
6.1. Willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the study, OR;
6.2. Favourable consultee advice is provided for those lacking capacity
7. Male or Female aged 18 years or above

Exclusion Criteria

1. The research team is not satisfied that remote monitoring can be safely established in the patient’s home
2. Pregnancy
3. Unable to comply with the study procedures
4. The mobile phone network at the patient’s residence is unsuitable for safe and effective monitoring

Study & Design

• Study Type: Observational
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Feasibility of continuous remote vital-sign monitoring measured using data coverage (data received remotely on each day of virtual ward care) including reliable heart rate in any 4-hour sliding window and reliable blood oxygen level (SpO2) received in any 12-hour sliding window over the monitoring period.