Continuous wireless monitoring in enhanced community care at home

Summary

Enhanced community care at home, also referred to as virtual wards, or hospital at home, provides acute care to people living in the community either at home or usual community care setting, when they would otherwise have been admitted to, or remained in, hospital. Remote monitoring of vital signs may be a component of enhanced community care at home. Continuous wireless monitoring (CWM) systems involve the patient wearing wireless sensors that communicate observations of vital signs to a remote digital platform,  which allows healthcare professionals to monitor patient status and receive alerts if there is a deterioration in patient condition.

Health Technology Wales researchers searched for evidence on CWM systems used in enhanced community care at home, virtual wards, or in hospital at home programmes for acute care. We excluded monitoring of chronic conditions.