The VA supplies the veterans with an electronic monitor - there are several that range in price from $800 to $1,300 - and gives them instructions on basic procedures, such as how to take blood pressure or check blood sugar.
"We can set up the questions we want them to answer every day," Davis said. "And it all works over a plain old telephone line."
Rice has mastered the procedures and data input. He might also answer a few questions about his overall health before transmitting the information to Jones' computer at Perry Point.
"Every morning, the machine says: 'Good morning, Eugene,' and the next thing I know, I am talking back to it," he said.
Telehealth is helping to care for nearly 30,000 veterans at VA hospitals nationwide, officials said.
"This is really good technology that is expanding both the level and the quality of care for our patients," said Michael E. Dukes, spokesman for VA Maryland Health Care System. "It is like having a nurse in your home."
Although there is no physical contact, the technology allows nurses to assess patients and intervene, said Sandy Summers, director of the Center for Nursing Advocacy, an international nonprofit agency working to increase public understanding of the nursing profession.
"The nurse is still able to educate and advocate for the patient," Summers said. "And with a patient's history readily available, the nurse can know what went on yesterday and months before."
By comparing daily data to patient history, the telehealth nurse can spot any irregularities, such as sudden weight gain or fatigue, that might signal problems.
"I know from the history and the data when something is going wrong, and I will try to figure what and why," said Sheryl Batten, senior care coordinator at the Baltimore VA hospital. "You do your detective work, like nursing CSI, and figure out what they need to change."
Davis, who expects to add three telehealth nurses to the staff of four at the city VA facility, said ease of use and reassurance for patients make the program successful.
"Patients like the system and they feel that someone is looking out for them and that someone is only a phone call away," she said.
"Nurses can get around to more patients than if they were calling on them one-on-one."
Telenursing is used primarily in the VA hospitals, but Davis, who has been nursing for 32 years, envisions it moving into the private sector.
"It is technology that is continually evolving," she said. "I used to think if you were not touching your patients, you were not nursing them. But as long as we are working to improve our patients' lives, we are nursing."
Jones, too, sees telenursing as "the wave of the future in preventive medicine."
Rice, 18 months into the program, has become a staunch supporter.
"Since I have been with Dee and the VA, I have not gotten better, but everything has been better for me," he said. "I feel really great. If I could sing, I would."
mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com
