craigdailypress.com

Craig residents should not forget to take care of their personal health.

The Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Assoc-iation recently received a $50,000 grant that should help the organization help others.

"Preventive health care is the best measure you can take to prevent the onset of chronic disease," said Carrie Godes, director of public health at the VNA.

Thanks to the grant, which was provided by the Department of Local Affairs, the VNA now will be able to make it much easier for Craig patients to monitor their vital signs, which include heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, weight and temperature.

"There's a huge boom right now in the telehealth industry ... and in the information age we are in, people will soon be able to check their vitals in a user-friendly way," said Godes.

Godes said that as early as the beginning of this summer, the VNA will use the grant money to buy two health kiosks and six to eight in-home monitors. Once installed in the VNA lobby, Moffat County's kiosks will collect health status information for regular clinical review, identify health risks and track changes in health status.

Godes is excited about the system's ability to provide simple and inexpensive access to health care. With the swipe of a personalized card, residents can eliminate the high cost and inconvenience of scheduled monitoring appointments.

"If something unexpectedly changes -- say your blood pressure level -- you want to be the first to know. These monitoring systems will be your trigger to see a physician," said Godes.

Godes said she was not sure how much patients would pay to use the machines.

The home-based monitoring systems, which cost-effectively transmit the VNA's home patients' information directly to a central computer system, will be distributed to Moffat and Routt county patients according to need.

For more information call the Craig VNA, 745 Russell St., at 824-8233.

Dave Shively can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 209, or dshively@craigdailypress.com.