Guardian Home Care Holdings, Inc. Enhances Telehealth Program With Cardiocom Telehealth Technology

BRENTWOOD, Tenn., June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Guardian Home Care Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of home care and hospice services, announced it has entered into a business relationship with Cardiocom® to provide advanced home telehealth technology to patients with chronic illnesses.  Cardiocom is a developer, manufacturer and clinical service provider of award-winning telehealth solutions.

Cardiocom's Commander Telehealth System provides an interactive opportunity to proactively manage patient care. The system guides the patient through an interactive "health check" that includes the collection of symptoms, care plan compliance, and vital signs such as weight, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and heart rate.  This information is immediately transmitted over a standard phone line or a cellular signal to the patient's nurse for review.

"It's estimated that three-fourths of all health care spending is associated with patients with one or more chronic health conditions.  Many of these patients are homebound seniors served by home care agencies like ours.  It's imperative that we find effective ways to keep them healthy at home and out of expensive institutional care.  We chose the Cardiocom telemonitoring system because we felt it provided the best opportunity for our company to impact the quality of care we deliver and help our patients maintain their independence at home, "said Judy Bishop, CEO of Guardian.

Bishop added that telemonitoring will increasingly become more important as all health care providers move toward "Value Based Purchasing," meaning quality patient outcomes will equal higher Medicare reimbursement.  Hospitals, for example, will be penalized for hospital readmissions.

"When a chronically ill patient returns from a hospital stay, that's when they are most fragile and susceptible to complications.  Research indicates that early home care use reduces Medicare post-hospitalization by billions of dollars.  Having the ability to immediately monitor these patients with telehealth technology will give our nurses a tremendous tool to enhance patient care and save the government a lot of money in the process," she said.

About Guardian Health Care Holdings

Guardian Home Care Holdings, Inc., founded in 1969 and headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, is a leading provider of comprehensive homecare and hospice services, serving more than 12,000 patients and clients in Tennessee, Georgia and Texas.

Doing business as Texas Home Health, the Company operates 31 home care agencies in Texas providing skilled nursing services and attendant care to patients, primarily under Medicare and Medicaid funding programs.  The Company is one of the largest providers of home care services to the indigent population of Texas, providing 600,000 hours of care per month to more than 8,000 patients on the Texas State Waiver program.  More information on Texas Home Health is available at: www.txhha.com.

Doing business as Guardian Home Care, the Company operates eight home care agencies in Tennessee and six in Georgia, both Certificate of Need ("CON") states.  The Company provides skilled nursing services in these states, primarily under Medicare.  More information on Guardian Home Care is available at: www.guardianhomecare.us.

In addition, the Company provides hospice services in Texas and Tennessee, primarily under Medicare and Medicaid, through Texas Home Health Hospice and Guardian Hospice.

About Cardiocom

Cardiocom®, the Experts in Telehealth(SM), is an award-winning leader in innovative home telehealth solutions. Founded in 1997, Cardiocom develops, manufactures and markets its own telehealth devices for heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, COPD, asthma and other chronic conditions. Cardiocom's clients include some of the most respected home health groups, health plans, hospitals, physician groups, and coordinated care companies in the nation. Through these established relationships, Cardiocom improves the lives of thousands of people each day. For more information on Cardiocom and its services, call 888-243-8881 or visit www.cardiocom.com

CONTACT: Tracy Mitchell, Vice President of Cardiocom, 1-888-243-8881, [email protected].

SOURCE Cardiocom