Key result
Blood pressure telemonitoring maintains routine hypertension care and increases monitoring access during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why the study?
It was unknown how patients experienced hypertension management, with or without blood pressure telemonitoring, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Does blood pressure telemonitoring improve patient experience and access to care in patients with hypertension during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Does blood pressure telemonitoring improve patient experience and access to care in patients with hypertension during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Blood pressure telemonitoring permitted routine care to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic and supported patient self-management and remote monitoring of hypertension.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to understand how patients experienced hypertension management, with or without blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring, during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN, METHODS, PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: This qualitative study conducted between April and November 2022 consisted of 43 semistructured telephone interviews (23 men and 20 women) from 6 primary care practices in one area of Scotland. RESULTS: From the views of 25 participants with experience of using the Connect Me telemonitoring service and 18 participants without such experience, 5 themes were developed. These were: (1) navigating access to services. There were challenges to gaining timely and/or in-person access to services and a reluctance to attend clinical settings because participants were aware of their increased risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus. (2) Adapting National Health Service services. All six practices had adapted care provision in response to potential COVID-19 transmission; however, these adaptations disrupted routine management of in-person primary care hypertension, diabetes and/or asthma checks. (3) Telemonitoring feedback. Telemonitoring reduced the need to attend in-person primary care practices and supported access to remote healthcare monitoring and feedback. (4) Self-management. Many non-telemonitoring participants were motivated to use self-management strategies to track their BP using home monitoring equipment. Also, participants were empowered to self-manage lifestyle and hypertension medication. (5) Experience of having COVID-19. Some participants contracting the COVID-19 virus experienced an immediate increase in their BP while a few experienced ongoing increased BP readings. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted routine in-person care for patients with hypertension. Both telemonitoring and some non-telemonitoring patients were motivated to self-manage hypertension, including self-adjusting medication; however, only those with access to telemonitoring had increased access to hypertension monitoring and feedback. BP telemonitoring permitted routine care to continue for participants in this study and may offer a service useful in pandemic proofing hypertension healthcare in the future.
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McHale et al. (2023) studied Hypertension (n=43). Blood pressure telemonitoring vs. No telemonitoring was evaluated on Patient experience of hypertension management. Blood pressure telemonitoring permitted routine care to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing 25 users with increased access to monitoring and feedback compared to 18 non-users.
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