Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • September 2011 (Revised January 2012)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Mala Kaul
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:20
ShareBar

Abstract

The Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System case presents one home healthcare organization's efforts to use telemonitoring to improve the quality of care provided to at-risk patients who were discharged from hospitals and needed home care. After two years of using the Health Buddy system for telemonitoring at-risk patients, Mark Oshnock, President of Visiting Nurse Health System (VNHS) must decide whether to invest in buying more Health Buddy units. While Oshnock believed that there were real benefits associated with telemonitoring, he was having difficulty quantifying those benefits and he was concerned about VNHS' ability to continue investing resources in telemonitoring given the realities of the health care reimbursement environment in which they operated. While several studies had demonstrated the benefits of telemonitoring, Oshnock felt that the long-term benefits accruing to the health system as a whole were not immediately quantifiable or visible to the hospitals and insurance companies. Without external support for the telemonitoring initiative from insurance companies, it would be difficult for VNHS to keep up the momentum and ramp up telemonitoring through additional purchases of Health Buddy units. From a purely financial standpoint, such an investment would be very difficult for VNHS to justify. The irony was that with the new regulatory pressures and increased focus on preventative healthcare, telemonitoring pointed to an effective tool in managing and reducing acute care hospitalizations. However, balancing these benefits against limited financial support from other key players in the health care system would be challenging.

Keywords

Capital Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Risk Management; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry

Citation

McFarlan, F. Warren, Mark Keil, and Mala Kaul. "Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System." Harvard Business School Case 112-030, September 2011. (Revised January 2012.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

F. Warren McFarlan

→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2017
    • Faculty Research

    Issues in Non-Profit Governance

    By: F. Warren McFarlan
    • 2016
    • Faculty Research

    Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group

    By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao
    • January 2016 (Revised March 2016)
    • Faculty Research

    HNA Group: Global Excellence with Chinese Characteristics

    By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Joycelyn W. Eby
More from the Authors
  • Issues in Non-Profit Governance By: F. Warren McFarlan
  • Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao
  • HNA Group: Global Excellence with Chinese Characteristics By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Joycelyn W. Eby
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.