Children's of Alabama Partners with Locus Health to Provide At-Home Monitoring for Pediatric Patients

BIRMINGHAM — Parents of infants with complex heart defects will now be given an innovative new telehealth platform when they are discharged from Children’s of Alabama to assist and monitor the home recovery process.

The Locus Health app is a remote monitoring system that connects parents and healthcare providers allowing them to share vital health information in real-time.

Children’s of Alabama’s new partnership with Locus Health will help bring more efficiency and efficacy to the monitoring of infants’ health during the high-risk days, weeks and months following treatment for congenital heart defects. The Locus platform utilizes Apple iPads and iPhones and replaces the bulky binders, papers and pencils that have traditionally been used to track children’s vitals.

“With the launch of Locus Health at Children’s of Alabama, families will have a tool that strengthens the connection between their child and healthcare providers, all from the comfort and convenience of their home,” said Sarah Blair, RN, MSN, CRNP, director of Hearts at Home at Children’s of Alabama. “Families will take an active role in their child’s care by electronically documenting vital data, such as heart rate, oxygen saturation and weight. Tools within the app empower them to recognize changes in their child before they become a life-threatening concern.”

At Children’s of Alabama, Locus will be integrated into the hospital’s existing Hearts at Home program. Hearts at Home provides home monitoring and support for babies with complex congenital heart disease treated in the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center of Alabama at Children’s. Babies in the program include those born with a single ventricle (pumping chamber) who will undergo three major open-heart surgeries by the time they are two to three years old. The first and most complex surgery occurs at 1 to 2 weeks old, with the second surgery at 4 to 12 months old. The months spent at home after the first and before the second surgery are the most critical and the most overwhelming for parents.

Locus is able to leverage providers’ existing workflows, enabling care teams to efficiently manage large groups of patients and allowing clinicians to spend more time helping their patients, instead of collecting information.

“Locus is thrilled to be partnering with Children’s of Alabama, one of the country’s largest and most dynamic pediatric healthcare facilities. Our platform brings peace of mind to parents and allows doctors and nurses to spend more time caring for their patients. We look forward to expanding Locus’s presence within Children’s of Alabama’s Hearts at Home program and helping more kids make full and healthy recoveries,” said Locus Health CEO Kirby Farrell.

In addition to Children’s of Alabama, Locus is currently being used at more than a dozen of the country’s leading Children’s Hospitals, including Lurie in Chicago, Dallas Children’s and UVA Health in Charlottesville. Locus has been proven to reduce the number of post-discharge ER visits by children treated for heart defects by as much as 40 percent and helped to reduce the total amount of days that neonates spend in the NICU by as much as 14 days.

ABOUT LOCUS HEALTH:

Locus provides a tailored remote monitoring and engagement platform that creates a meaningful connection between patients and their clinical care teams. We partner with health systems from initial consultation to implementation and deployment, making the promise of pediatric care management at home an affordable reality.