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East Alabama Medical Center Selects WebVMC to Provide Remote Disease Management Services for Home Health Patients

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 09:00 CDT

East Alabama Medical Center, a regional referral center serving a five-county market area, today announced a partnership with WebVMC, developer of a system enabling anytime, anywhere virtual medical care technology for remote disease management.

"East Alabama Medical Center continuously strives to find new ways to make healthcare as personal, professional and convenient as possible, and the medical center's home health services division decided that telehealth was a great way to carry out this mission," said Carol Murphey, Director, Home Care of East Alabama Medical Center. "Our selection process for a telehealth services provider was very involved, and we met with multiple vendors. We chose WebVMC because their system is web-based and had features no other company could offer, such as instant messaging for real-time communication between patients, physicians and caregivers."

Working with the patient's physician, Home Care of East Alabama Medical Center designs a care program tailored to the patient's individual needs. The patient's family and caregivers are also key members of the home care team, helping to set goals and plan care criteria. RemoteNurse(TM), WebVMC's system that will monitor the vital signs of Home Care of East Alabama Medical Center patients, is the new conduit to keep patients and care team members connected 24 hours a day, seven days a week. RemoteNurse(TM) immediately alerts members of the care team if changes in a patient's status are identified, so that an appropriate intervention can occur well before complications develop.

"An Institute of Medicine report released in June said that U.S. hospital emergency room utilization is at an all-time high, with visits up 26 percent from 1993 to 2003," said Bill Behnke, executive vice president of marketing and sales, WebVMC. "WebVMC helps prevent unneeded emergency room visits or hospitalizations by providing the continuity of care and safety net to support patients in their recovery or the management of their illnesses once they leave the hospital."

"We used to contact the congestive heart failure patients under our care by phone and saw some improvement in compliance just from the calls. However, we anticipate WebVMC's technology will take us to the next level in promoting patient compliance and better healthcare outcomes that will keep our patients at home and out of the hospital," said Murphey.

About WebVMC:

WebVMC provides virtual healthcare technology using the Internet that creates a "Circle of Care" for the person with a chronic illness, connecting the patient, caregiver and clinician for 24/7 disease management from any location, in multiple healthcare delivery systems - home care, hospitals and assisted living facilities. With innovative capabilities, such as audio tracks, touch-screen access and instant messaging, WebVMC's products are user-friendly, comprehensive solutions that cost-effectively manage patients with chronic illness for better health status and better quality of life. For more information about WebVMC, visit www.webvmc.com, or contact Bill Behnke, 210-240-9400, billbehnke@webvmc.com.

About East Alabama Medical Center and Home Care of East Alabama Medical Center

Devoted to the spirit of caring, East Alabama Medical Center strives to provide high-quality care in a compassionate and cost-effective manner appropriate to the needs of patients, through employees and physicians, for the benefit of the communities it serves. Home Care of East Alabama Medical Center offers a wide array of services that help people recuperate from illness and injury in a familiar setting. Committed to quality and patient care, Home Care of East Alabama Medical Center is Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) accredited. For more information, visit www.eamc.org and www.homecareeamc.org.

Source: Business Wire

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