In the face of rising staffing shortages, centralized virtual sitting models offer a scalable solution to keeping patients safe.
Historically, health systems and hospitals have used “patient sitters” to provide one-on-one monitoring support for patients. This approach, however, is costly and inefficient in the face of ongoing staffing shortages. Whereas virtual sitters are a trusted, proven solution to keeping patients safe while reducing the burden on your bedside staff.
Centralized virtual sitting models provide a solution to staffing shortages while ensuring patient safety. By implementing a hub and spoke model, healthcare systems can capture workforce efficiencies, reduce costs, and deliver improved patient outcomes.
Centralized virtual sitting models are quickly becoming the norm and a proven way to extend the ROI of your TeleSitter® program. Download the latest guide for best practices curated from AvaSure’s team of seasoned nurses and clinical professionals with experience implementing over 1,100 successful programs.
1:1 Patient sitters are costly and inefficient. As a result, many healthcare organizations are expanding their TeleSitter® programs.
Solution
A hub-and-spoke model enables a dedicated monitoring staff to work from a remote “hub” with one or more large observation stations With a hub-and-spoke model, dedicated monitoring staff work from a remote “hub” with one or more large observation stations. Each staff member uses room devices to watch between 12 and 16 patients across various facilities or “spokes” across a metropolitan area, state, or region. This enables one trained staff member to proactively keep multiple patients safe.
Cost avoidance strengthens the return on investment (ROI) of the TeleSitter® solution One fall can cost $1,500, and a fall with an injury can cost much more. Ochsner Health benchmarks both system and TeleSitter fall rates and has found that the fall rate is almost nonexistent compared with the system fall rate—a clear indication of a good ROI.
90% cost reduction with the TeleSitter® solution
With the TeleSitter® solution, 8 to 9 technicians can monitor 90 to 108 patients—an approximate 1:12 ratio
AvaSure estimates that the TeleSitter® solution costs less than $3 per patient monitoring hour. Ochsner Health’s experience has been consistent with these findings
Expanding clinical case uses Although fall prevention is often the reason hospitals implement the TeleSitter® solution, there are a range clinical uses that improve patient and staff wellbeing. Remote safety monitoring can also play an important role in workplace violence prevention.
The potential to integrate TeleSitter program capabilities into other centralized services Looking ahead, Ochsner Health believes its TeleSitter program will play a central role in providing a consistent virtual experience for patients and the potential to integrate its TeleSitter program capabilities with other centralized services.
“Many times, we put patients on camera to watch for respiratory distress, rather than for falls. If the remote monitor staff saw signs of respiratory distress, they escalated to the rapid response teams and called the bedside teams if intervention was needed.”
-Jennifer Humbert, MSN, RN, Assistant Vice President of Telemedicine at Ochsner Health
BELMONT, Mich. – AvaSure, a leading provider of advanced audiovisual monitoring systems used to care for patients and protect caregivers, honored WakeMed Health & Hospitals with the Hub and Spoke Award as part of AvaPrize, its prestigious annual healthcare awards program.
The AvaPrize program honors individuals and organizations who have advanced patient and staff safety, eased the working lives of nurses and achieved new efficiencies in care delivery. Winners demonstrate the ever-evolving role of continuous video monitoring as it becomes a vital tool in patient care and staff development throughout a healthcare organization.
WakeMed Health & Hospitals’ honor, the Hub and Spoke Award, recognizes an organization with the most efficient use of the AvaSure TeleSitter® by multi-site organizations using a single remote central observation center.
“Most experts believe the post-pandemic U.S. healthcare system will be fundamentally different, as downward pressure on costs and a need to show value for dollars spent will fuel widespread reforms,” said Lisbeth Votruba, Vice President of Clinical Quality and Innovation at AvaSure. “WakeMed Health & Hospitals has played a significant role in making strides toward change with the use of our technology. As has been shown in numerous clinical and economic studies, AvaSure is in tune with the need for cost-effective, quality care.”
AvaSure selected WakeMed Health & Hospitals for the award because it has been using online reporting of nursing analytics data since July 2016. During this time, it has monitored 21,810 patients for a total of 732,024 hours. WakeMed Health & Hospitals has been consistently hovering near 80% utilization with devices in addition to expanding and adding more devices over the years.
The winners were honored during the company’s symposium Sept. 23-24. The AvaSure national symposium brings together senior leaders, frontline staff and health policy experts to share best practices and new uses for continuous remote patient care. This year’s theme was Leading Through Change.
The fifth consecutive healthcare awards program presented at industry-leading symposium.
