Developing and implementing a remote patient management program at a large academic children's hospital.

BACKGROUND

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) can improve access, engagement, and clinical outcomes, yet evidence describing how health systems develop, scale, and sustain enterprise-wide RPM programs remains limited, particularly in pediatrics. We describe the development of a centralized RPM program at a large academic children's hospital and lessons learned from implementing 16 programs across diverse clinical settings.

METHODS

Beginning with a single cardiology pilot in 2021, we iteratively developed an enterprise RPM model spanning complex transitions from hospital to home, perioperative care, and specialty care. A centralized Digital Health team provided program intake and prioritization, implementation support, technology and electronic health record (EHR) integration, analytics, and ongoing optimization, while clinical divisions retained responsibility for clinical workflows and patient management.

RESULTS

The portfolio expanded to 16 RPM programs. Experience across implementations demonstrated the importance of clearly defining the clinical or operational problem and measures of success before launch, identifying strong clinical champions, integrating RPM into existing workflows, selecting technology aligned with organizational and patient needs, and establishing sustainable operational and financial models. Centralized infrastructure enabled shared expertise, standardized measurement, and ongoing optimization while preserving specialty-specific clinical ownership.

CONCLUSIONS

A centralized operational model with decentralized clinical ownership can support scalable pediatric RPM across diverse populations and workflows. Our experience demonstrates that successful enterprise RPM requires more than technology deployment; sustained growth depends on standardized implementation processes, clinical engagement, governance, measurement, equity considerations, and early planning for long-term sustainability.