In preliminary testing, Vanderbilt Home Care Services (VHCS) has found that Internet-based remote patient monitoring reduces hospital readmissions for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) who are receiving home nursing visits.

A new computer program called Cornelius calculates two risk scores for each newly arrived Vanderbilt University Hospital patient — one estimating the patient’s risk of developing pressure ulcers (bedsores) during the current hospital stay, and the other estimating the patient’s risk of returning to VUH for readmission within 30 days of discharge.

Each year millions of Americans return to the hospital within 30 days of their previous discharge. Although many readmissions could be preventable, most statistical models for predicting them "perform poorly," according to researchers at Vanderbilt and the Oregon Health and Science University and their affiliated VA medical centers.