Helen Worley has a weak heart and trouble breathing.

“Anemia, too,” the 84-year-old said.

Her daughter, who lives in Topeka, used to have to take her to the doctor once a month for a checkup.

“It was such a chore,” Worley said. “When we go, I’m in a wheelchair, so my daughter had to do everything.”

Not anymore. For the past several weeks, Worley’s weight, pulse, blood pressure and oxygen saturation have been checked every morning, using punch-one-button equipment – a scale, a finger clip and a cigar box-size monitor – that sends data to a computer at the Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn. office, 200 Maine.

The computer is checked every morning, seven days a week. If there’s a problem – a drop in blood pressure, for example – a VNA nurse will contact Worley’s doctor and, if needed, call on her.

Helen Worley, left, assisted by a nurse from Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn., hooks herself up to a monitoring device connected to her home telephone. The device checks her blood pressure and relays results to the Visiting Nurses office.

“This is cutting-edge stuff,” said VNA Executive Director Judy Bellome.

Worley still sees her doctor, but she no longer needs to go every month because VNA shares her data with her doctor.

“This is a great program,” said Worley’s daughter, Carolyn Wheeler. “We know what’s going on all the time now. It’s been a big help.”

The equipment is part of a six-month study aimed at finding out whether there’s enough demand for “telemonitoring” in Lawrence to warrant VNA buying the units.

VNA is leasing 15 units from Honeywell HomMedCQ using money – about $8,000 – contributed by the Douglas County Community Foundation, Soroptimist International of Lawrence and an anonymous donor.

“At the end of six months, we’ll evaluate the results,” Bellome said. The program started June 1.

At the end of June, 10 of the units were in use.

Bellome said VNA had been making Lawrence-area doctors aware of the program. To be eligible, patients must:

¢ Be referred by their doctor.

¢ Have a land-line telephone.

¢ Have an acute condition that puts them at risk of hospitalization or frequent emergency room visits.

¢ Live within the VNA service area, which includes all of Douglas County and parts of Shawnee, Jefferson, Leavenworth, Osage, Franklin and Johnson counties.

Most participants are expected to stay in the program for about two months or until their condition stabilizes. The service is provided at no additional cost to VNA patients.

For more information, call VNA, 843-3738.

“This is helping people stay in their homes, which is what we’re all about,” Bellome said.