New Remote Health Monitoring tender sees HSE expanding telehealth services, improving patient care

More patients will receive virtual health monitoring in their own home using technology to provide safe and effective care remotely by multidisciplinary teams, with the issue of a new HSE tender. 

Virtual care and telehealth is proven to help patients avoid hospitalisation and to facilitate patients to get home sooner following a hospital stay, whilst delivering efficiencies and cost savings to the Irish healthcare system.

By the end of next year, thousands more patients across the country will benefit from remote health monitoring across a range of specialties including but not limited to Respiratory, Cardiology, Oncology, Stroke, Maternity, and Older Persons services.

Examples of remote health monitoring benefiting patients include:

• CARE virtual ward in Donegal which is changing how Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is managed, empowering patients to manage their condition at home and delivering significant clinical and economic benefits.  CARE virtual ward has proven to reduce COPD admissions and improving patient outcomes.  There has been a 20% drop in COPD admissions and a 50% drop in readmissions, with 934 hospital bed days avoided since the service commenced.
• Acute Virtual Wards (AVW) are now live in University Hospital Limerick and St Vincents University Hospital with a capacity of 80 beds daily.  Since Go Live in July 2024, over 1,937 patients have been onboarded accounting for over 18,100 patient active days being cared for on Virtual Wards. Five further AVWs are due for Go Live by end Q4 2025. Virtual wards support patients across multiple clinical pathways including cardiology, respiratory, general medicine and urology. These are patients who would otherwise be in hospital but can now receive the acute care, monitoring and treatment they need in their own home.

Damien McCallion, HSE CTTO (HSE Chief Technology and Transformation Officer & Deputy CEO), said: “Remote health monitoring is a clinically validated and technology-enabled approach to delivering safe and effective care outside of conventional clinical settings. It allows suitable patients to receive monitoring and treatment from home, supporting care delivered remotely by multidisciplinary teams, including chronic disease management in the community. It can result in the avoidance of hospital admissions or lead to early discharge for our patients, where appropriate.

“Remote Health Monitoring Technologies will play a key role in expanding telehealth services, improving patient care, and supporting the transition of services into the community, as part of the integrated approach to healthcare in the new Health Regions.”

This new procurement process marks a significant milestone in the advancement of the HSE’s digital health strategy and supports the broader objectives of Sláintecare. The planning approach includes the establishment of regional service hubs and integration with existing virtual care models, ensuring alignment with national service objectives. The aim is to appoint a single supplier to deliver an end-to-end, vendor-managed solution that will enable a national rollout of remote health monitoring services across the Irish health system. The contract will also regularise access to these technologies for both current and future initiatives. In terms of the Procurement process the plan is to sign contracts, subject to the necessary approvals, in Q2 2026, with the consolidation plan in relation to the merger/integration of existing virtual projects as appropriate, running to end of Q4 2026.

The Invitation to Tender for a Contract for the provision of Remote Health Monitoring Technologies to Support Clinical Care in the Ambulatory Setting will is live now at eTenders.gov.ie.