By Lori EhdeLoyal and Peggy Erickson, Jasper, both have chronic lung disease, and two years ago Loyal ended up in nursing home care.But he’s back home again, and with help from electronic home health care, he gets the daily medical supervision he needs.It’s called "telehealth," and it’s transforming people’s lives, according to the Ericksons."I would never be able to have him at home," Peggy Erickson said about her husband.Telehealth is making inroads in southwest Minnesota as a way for health care professionals to monitor patients in the comfort of their homes.Good Samaritan Home Health Care started telehealth in Windom in 2001, and representatives will be in Luverne April 25 to introduce the concept here.The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday in the Mary Jane Home Good Samaritan Center, Luverne. The presentation will be part of the MJB Family Council meeting, but the public is welcome to attend.Telehealth is easy-to-use technology installed in homes to measures heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, weight and blood sugar, among other things."It allows us to see them more often than if we went to visit them in person," said Joyce Doughty, home care director for Good Samaritan Society.Further, she said, the technology prevents untold emergency visits, because frequent checkups detect problems early."We pick up early pneumonia so we can get them started on antibiotics instead of having them end up in the hospital," Doughty said.She said it’s too early to measure success with data, but she said telehealth is saving thousands in nursing home costs.She said five former nursing home patients in southwest Minnesota started using telehealth and have so far saved a combined 2 1/2 years in nursing home costs.One patient in the previous year had been hospitalized 11 times, but in six months at home on telehealth, there was just one hospitalization.Doughty said telehealth is not intended to be an emergency system like Lifeline, but she said it at least helps people identify the real emergencies."The nice thing is they can call us when they’re not feeling well, and we can tell them over the phone if they really do need to go to the doctor."That’s what the Ericksons like about telehealth."You’re not spending time in the doctor’s office for minor aches and pains," Peggy said, "and they have more time to deal with serious problems."She said it’s hard to know whether a small symptom is important enough to warrant a doctor visit."If he has a rash, I can put the camera right up to where it is, and they can see it," Peggy said. "There have been times when I would have had to run him in if we didn’t have the equipment to decipher what’s going on."The Ericksons have had the equipment in their home for 1 1/2 years and are among the first patients in Pipestone County to use it. Telehealth has been recently installed in homes in Pipestone, Edgerton and Jasper, and Doughty said she’s introducing the concept now in Rock County.Rock County has for many years had a successful home health care system, and Doughty said telehealth isn’t meant to replace personal in-home visits. Rather, it’s meant to supplement it.The home health nurse uses a provider station to collect information from the home stations, which can be simple monitors or videos.The machines can pick up data at any time, but the video consults are scheduled."Because they know their patients so well, our nurses are able to pick up on things just by looking at them through the video," Doughty said. "If they look pale, or tired, or if they’ve been wearing the same dress for a week — they may ask more questions or suggest a doctor visit."The equipment also allows patients to take their own vital signs to personally track their health.For more information on telehealth, call Good Samaritan Home Health Care at 1-800-870-3885.