Initial data from healthcare locations where the RehabTracker mobile app is being used suggest that the application may be helping to improve outcomes for patients, according to Kindred Rehabilitation Services (KRS). KRS—a division of Kindred Healthcare LLC—developed RehabTracker to help enhance the way KRS and its partners engage with patients and their families during their rehab stays. Patients work with their therapy team to set personal goals and input them into the app; use their cell phones or tablets to see and track their progress in real time; share that progress with invited family and friends; and receive messages of support from loved ones – all at the palm of their hands. The app is compliant with federal health information privacy rules and can be used by patients and families during bedside shift report, interdisciplinary rounds and physician visits to review important information and the care plan for the day, according to Kindred Rehabilitation Services, in a media release. KRS began using RehabTracker at partner locations in 2018 and will soon begin offering the app to patients at its freestanding joint venture inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and to patients receiving therapy at Kindred’s long-term acute care hospitals. On average, patients at KRS-served locations using RehabTracker as of June 2018 experienced a:

  • 7.9% increase in Functional Independence Measure, which evaluates a patient’s functional improvements from admission to discharge;
  • 3.2% increase in discharge to community, a reflection of the increased overall percentage of patients able to return home after treatment versus being discharged to another healthcare setting; and
  • 20 percentile point increase in Program Evaluation Model score, which measures the effectiveness and efficiency of patient care across several metrics.

“With forward-thinking rehabilitation and intuitive technology like our RehabTracker patient engagement app, our 7,000 therapists are better able to help patients get back to their lives,” says Jason Zachariah, president of KRS, in the release. “We know that motivated and engaged patients typically respond better to rehabilitation care and as a result have better outcomes, so we leveraged the popular app platform to provide a convenient means to help them track and share their progress.” The app also includes the ability to add functionality and features based on user feedback. A recently added photo feature, for instance, allows patients to share images of their therapy progress, per the release. [Source(s): Kindred Rehabilitation Services, Business Wire]