Ricoh Launches Remote Patient Monitoring Managed Services for Healthcare

On October 4th, Ricoh USA launched its Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Enablement, the newest end-to-end managed services offering for healthcare systems that’s designed for more efficient and sustainable RPM workflows that can lead to improved patient care.

The firm says that RPM Enablement comes at a time when health systems are grappling with a  monumental shift to virtual care delivery and an unprecedented shortage of healthcare workers. This worker shortage has reached a nationwide crisis level where there aren’t nearly enough healthcare staff to fill vital RPM management roles, leading to alarming care gaps affecting the most vulnerable patient populations.

RPM Enablement is designed to help healthcare systems close this gap and to help lead to improved patient experiences by integrating into existing virtual care programs to support the deployment of remote patient monitoring system devices, inventory tracking, logistics, and device returns.

Healthcare Worker Shortage

According to Ricoh, the healthcare worker staffing shortage and burnout – most recently worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic – is putting extraordinary constraints on healthcare systems to staff RPM management roles, which limits their ability to scale virtual programs and affects  the standard of patient care.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, 98 percent of healthcare workers worry about their own burnout, which is likely accelerating nurse retirement, fueling a shortfall of 1.1 million registered nurses. The Mayo Clinic’s research has also revealed that U.S. doctor burnout has reached an all-time high of 63 percent. Additionally, 98 percent of clinicians are concerned that burnout can reduce quality of care, and 82 percent of the public believes that a worker shortage will affect their health. However, technology can be the difference maker in systemic change – and clinicians agree as 50-70% welcome the change to use technologies in their work.

Rory Fitzpatrick, vice president at Ricoh North America, commented: “Clinicians currently spend over 50 percent of their working hours using EHRs (electronic health records). That’s their reality and a massive contributor to burnout, so our mission is centered on pivoting that time back to patient care through supporting the modernization, automation, and enablement of the care workflows that are most critical to health system’s success.

“RPM Enablement is the latest demonstration of our commitment. In this period of burnout crisis, the healthcare industry has an opportunity to commit to workers’ emotional and physical well being – and Ricoh is dedicated to supporting positive systemic change with sustainable, scalable solutions,” Fitzpatrick said.

RPM is often considered one of the largest drivers of virtual care, with applications from primary care through chronic disease management. In fact, when RPM is part of a care plan, the Mayo Clinic has shown that 72.5 percent of remote patient monitoring patients comply with the care plan’s tasks, including taking medications and monitoring vitals. Further, only 9.4 percent were readmitted within 30 days versus 20 percent of patients not using RPM.

Ricoh Managed Services Experience

Ricoh says it’s uniquely positioned to help address workflow challenges resulting from the  healthcare worker shortage due to its large footprint and depth of managed services experience in the industry. It currently supports thousands of healthcare organizations with various aspects of their business, including nine out of 11 of the largest for-profit hospital systems, and 22 out of 32 of the largest nonprofit hospital systems, with about 3,200 facilities under its support. It’s also responsible for managing over 1 million devices in the United States through more than 2,100 U.S. field technicians across various industries.

More information about Ricoh’s Remote Patient Monitoring Enablement can be found here. For more information on Ricoh’s healthcare-system offerings – including Ricoh 3D printing for healthcare – visit the company here.