While most IT and clinical leaders believe that inpatient acute virtual care will play an increasingly significant role in care delivery, the reality is that it is still in the early stages of adoption. Survey data reveals a surprising gap: 29% of organizations have no virtual care programs, even as hospital leaders rank it as a top priority.
To help organizations bridge this gap, the 5-stage Inpatient Virtual Care Maturity Model offers a comprehensive blueprint for care model redesign, empowering leaders to drive change management and implement manageable, outcome-focused strategies.
What stage is your organization? Download the report to learn:
Where hospitals currently stand in virtual care maturity
How virtual care is reducing the burden on bedside staff
The key metrics hospitals use to measure virtual care program success
Falls remain a persistent and costly issue among hospitalized veterans, who are at a higher risk due to more prevalent chronic conditions. In response, the Veterans Health Administration introduced the SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act in 2024, creating an Office of Falls Prevention. Staffing shortages, particularly among Patient Care Technicians and Certified Nursing Assistants have exacerbated patient safety concerns, with patient falls rising 253% from 2020 to 2022.
To reduce the need for 1:1 sitters and improve safety, AvaSure’s AI-powered virtual care platform enables hospitals to remotely monitor high-risk patients and prevent falls and other adverses events.
Download the guide to learn:
How to reduce falls by nearly 20%
Ways to improve staff efficiency & satisfaction
The top 4 adverse events prevented in VA hospitals
St. Luke’s is a Duluth, Minnesota-based health system that serves the communities of northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Like many health systems across the country, it has faced challenges with staffing: a tightening labor market, increasing competition for experienced healthcare workers and rising costs.
THE PROBLEM
“Many of these challenges were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting us to seek new ways to provide additional resources and support to our patient care staff,” said Cole Rogers, RN, nurse manager at St. Luke’s.
“We identified virtual sitting as one solution to achieve a quick ROI, enabling us to decrease the use of costly one-to-one sitters.”
PROPOSAL
Knowing it couldn’t simply keep hiring more one-to-one sitters, St. Luke’s decided to explore alternative means of preventing patient falls and keeping patients safe.
“One method proven through research to be effective is virtual sitting, which enables a single, trained employee to monitor multiple patients simultaneously via AI-enabled mobile video-and-audio connection,” said Kristin Townley, RN, clinical supervisor at St. Luke’s. “This method helps prevent falls, elopement, violence against caregivers and other adverse events.
“Virtual monitoring has allowed our patient care teams to become more efficient by reserving their time for skills, activities and clinical tasks appropriate to their experience, education and licensure.”
Cole Rogers, RN, St. Luke’s
“Implementing a virtual sitter program promised to optimize staff efficiencies by allocating our resources more effectively – thereby, reducing the burden on staff and allowing them to focus on other critical aspects of patient care, while the virtual sitter program handles routine observation tasks,” she continued.
After a competitive review of vendors, St. Luke’s decided to go with AvaSure. Staff had spoken with nursing leaders at peer institutions and learned of the vendor’s excellent customer service, quick implementation and continued program support post-launch, she added.
“In addition, we appreciated the two-way video and versatile configurations of room devices, which enable a wide range of virtual care advances,” she noted.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
St. Luke’s nurse-driven elevated level of observation protocol allows the primary RN to initiate the virtual sitting program in their Meditech Expanse EHR. Once the order is placed, the monitor specialists receive a notification via their ASCOM phone system.
“We use a two-person model for our virtual sitting program: one staff member provides rounding services for patients and staff, while the other observes patients via video monitors,” Townley explained. “Nursing leaders have found this approach enhances patient and staff safety and helps support staff by providing adequate breaks to avoid monitor fatigue.
“Promoting a team approach to safety has helped build trust and goodwill among departments which, in turn, has increased program utilization.”
Kristin Townley, RN, St. Luke’s
“Promoting a team approach to safety has helped build trust and goodwill among departments which, in turn, has increased program utilization,” she continued.
By adding a rounding specialist, the hospital has provided nursing staff with a valuable resource for patient safety, which allows them to concentrate on direct patient care needs. Here’s how the process works.
Once an order is received, one specialist transports the camera to the patient room, completes audio and visual checks, and introduces the monitor observer to the patient. During rounds, the rounding specialist obtains face-to-face reports from nursing staff, provides patient updates, and rounds on one-to-one patients and staff while ensuring their welfare and conducting room safety checks.
Additionally, the specialist facilitates the triage process, attends staffing huddles, and cleans and transports camera and audio devices to storage. Finally, the monitor observer and rounding specialist switch places at least every four hours, depending on patient acuity, to avoid monitor fatigue.
“In addition to using virtual sitting for patients at risk of falls and elopement, St. Luke’s Hospital has expanded to virtual sitting for monitoring vital signs, monitoring seizure patients, communicating with patients requiring frequent interactions, and connecting with patients who have high call light usage,” Townley said.
“Our monitor specialists are currently being trained in empathetic communication, by our mental health department, in order to provide additional support to patients experiencing anxiety, depression and other mental health issues,” she added.
RESULTS
Since initiating the virtual sitting program at St. Luke’s Hospital in November 2021, the organization has had more than 164,842 hours of patient observation. The program uses 16 devices throughout the hospital. Virtual monitoring of patients has improved patient safety through fall reduction and prevention, boosted staff efficiency, and decreased staffing costs by reducing one-to-one sitters.
“Our primary use of virtual sitting is for fall reduction and prevention,” explained Cole Rogers, RN, nurse manager at St. Luke’s. “Fifty-four percent of our patients are admitted to the program for heightened fall risk. We estimate our program prevents 529 falls per month at St. Luke’s. We believe our virtual monitoring program helped us achieve the lowest fall rate in the State of Minnesota for the 3rd quarter of 2023.
“Without the presence of video and audio, the story could have ended differently and perhaps tragically.”
Christine Glover, St. Luke’s
“Virtual monitoring has allowed our patient care teams to become more efficient by reserving their time for skills, activities and clinical tasks appropriate to their experience, education and licensure, thus relieving them of duties that could be safely done by someone else with an alternative skill set,” she continued. “To optimize nursing licensure, we have implemented innovative methods of deploying our virtual sitter technology.”
One example is using monitor staff to check in with patients receiving continuous bladder irrigation, instead of the nurse being required to check in with the patient every 15-20 minutes. Another example is using the virtual monitor assistant to encourage patients to drink their bowel prep solution every 15 minutes, again preventing a nurse from having to do this task.
“The cost-effectiveness of our virtual sitter technology compared to traditional methods of one-to-one sitters has been incredibly impactful to St. Luke’s Hospital,” Rogers said. “In 2023, virtual sitter hours accounted for 39.7 FTEs hospital wide, while staffed one-to-one sitters amounted to 8.8 FTEs. For 2023, the annual cost savings from our virtual sitting program is more than $1.5 million dollars.
“From 2022-2023, some units in St. Luke’s Hospital saw a decrease in the number of one-to-one sitters by 73% due to the utilization of the virtual sitter program,” she continued. “Looking back to 2018, prior to implementing the virtual sitter program, St. Luke’s Hospital averaged 15.9 FTEs of one-to-one sitters.”
Since 2018, the organization has decreased one-to-one sitter FTE by about half, which allows those staff members to return to providing bedside care on the unit in addition to adding the support of the virtual sitter program. Virtual sitting has improved staffing ratios from one-to-one to one-to-12, sometimes even as high as one-to-16, depending on patient acuity.
“We believe communicating the positive impact of a virtual sitter program to patients and their families gives us greater engagement,” she noted. “A successful virtual sitter program fosters transparent communication between healthcare providers, patients and their families. It reassures them their well-being is a top priority, promoting a sense of trust in the health system.”
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
Christine Glover, telemonitor specialist program coordinator at St. Luke’s, advises her peers at other hospitals and health systems starting a virtual sitter program to consider prioritizing three steps: systematic training, patient-centered approach and continuous evaluation.
“Comprehensive training and education for healthcare staff and virtual sitters is integral to a successful program,” she said. “Thorough orientation ensures virtual sitters receive training in both technological aspects and healthcare protocols to guarantee competent and compassionate care.
“A patient-centered approach enables virtual sitters to prioritize patients’ well-being: providing emotional support, and maintaining a compassionate connection despite the virtual nature of the services we provide,” she continued. “Regularly assessing and appropriately triaging patients under observation allows the acute patients to remain monitored and the stable patients to discharge from the program, optimizing the technologic-assisted care.”
This ensures feedback from both virtual sitters and healthcare staff to identify areas for determining appropriate interventions and implementing necessary adjustments, she added. Providing training to St. Luke’s bedside care staff led to better patient outcomes and overall staff satisfaction, she reported.
From a technological viewpoint, Glover outlined, these are the pieces that flow together to enhance communication electronically:
Order entry for virtual monitoring in the patient’s electronic healthcare record transmits to the ASCOM phone in the monitor department.
A monitor specialist enters patient information into program software.
The camera video/audio monitoring is initiated and tested. The mobile cameras are equipped with infrared technology for night vision.
Frequent communication from the monitor specialist to primary care staff occurs via ASCOM phones.
Communication with patients happens via verbal interventions, prerecorded announcements and stat alarms.
To ensure monitor staff attentiveness, observer alert notifications are transmitted to leadership over ASCOM phones to check staff and patients for safety.
Data on the number of safety events, device and unit utilization, alarm response times, and the number of interventions are collected by a software informatics program. This information is globally distributed throughout St. Luke’s Hospital.
Open shifts within the department are texted out via computer software.
“Feedback we’ve received about our virtual monitoring program includes mention of the ease of implementation for nursing staff,” Glover noted. “It’s been said the two-person virtual monitoring model we use for our program produces less stressful ordering and higher utilization, which results in increased patient safety.
“A nurse can enter an order for virtual monitoring at any workstation, removing the need for paper forms and faxing,” she continued. “The delivery of the camera to the unit by the rounding staff allows the nurse to remain on the unit to provide patient care.”
One patient story illustrates the benefit the virtual sitting program has created for patient safety.
“While observing a patient in the neurology unit for fall prevention, the virtual sitter noticed the patient begin to cough while the patient was eating lunch,” she recalled. “The virtual safety attendant activated the audio on the patient’s camera and heard coughing and gasping. He then called the on-duty nurse to intervene and called a rapid response code.
“The nurse stopped the patient from choking, and the patient was later moved to an area of the hospital that delivered a higher level of care,” she continued. “Without the presence of video and audio, the story could have ended differently and perhaps tragically.”
The integration of virtual sitter technology represents a significant step toward enhancing patient care and streamlining healthcare operations, she added.
“By considering these key factors, healthcare providers can make informed decisions that contribute to a safer, more efficient and patient-centric healthcare environment,” she concluded.
Posted on January 24, 2024 by Olivia Phillips - Uncategorized
Background
St. Luke’s is a Duluth, Minnesota-based health system that serves the communities of northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Its services include primary and specialty care, a level II regional trauma center, the only DNV orthopedic center of excellence in the state, a nationally recognized regional heart and vascular center, as well as a regional cancer center accredited by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer. The hospital’s mission is to put the patient above all else, and its more than 3,000 employees endeavor to demonstrate compassion, quality, teamwork, and safety in everything they do.
Problem
Like many health systems across the country, St. Luke’s faced challenges associated with staffing such as a tightening labor market, increasing competition for experienced healthcare workers, and rising costs. Many of these challenges were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting St. Luke’s nursing leaders to seek out new ways to provide additional resources and support to its patient care staff. To overcome these barriers, St. Luke’s decided to implement a virtual sitting solution, which would enable it to decrease the use of costly one-to-one sitters to monitor at-risk patients and achieve a quick ROI. After a competitive review of vendors, St. Luke’s decided to partner with AvaSure, due to feedback that nursing leaders received from peer institutions regarding AvaSure’s excellent customer service, quick implementation and continued program support post-launch.
Solution
Due to the costs and general unfeasibility of employing one-to-one sitters, many leading health systems have explored alternative means of preventing patient falls. One method that has proven effective is virtual sitting, which enables a single trained employee to monitor multiple patients simultaneously via AI-enabled mobile video-and-audio connection, preventing falls, elopement, violence against caregivers, and other adverse events. AvaSure’s two-way video and versatile configurations of room devices enable a wide range of virtual care advances.
For its virtual sitting program, St. Luke’s uses a two-person model: one staff member provides sitting and rounding services for patients and staff, while the other specialist observes patients via video monitors. Nursing leaders have found that this approach enhances patient and staff safety and helps support sitting staff by providing adequate breaks to avoid monitor fatigue. Promoting a team approach to safety has helped build trust and goodwill between departments which, in turn, has increased program utilization.
By adding a rounding specialist, the hospital has provided nursing staff with a valuable resource for patient safety, which allows them to concentrate on direct patient care needs. Here’s how the process works:
Once an order is received, one specialist transports the camera to the patient room, completes audio and visual checks, and introduces the monitor observer to the patient.
During rounds, the rounding specialist obtains face-to-face reports from nursing staff, provides patient updates, and rounds on one-to-one patients and staff while ensuring their welfare and conducting room safety checks.
Additionally, the specialist facilitates the triage process, attends staffing huddles, and cleans and transports camera and audio devices to storage.
Finally, the monitor observer and rounding specialist switch places at least every four hours, depending on patient acuity, to avoid monitor fatigue.
In addition to using virtual sitting for patients at risk of falls and elopement, St. Luke’s Hospital has expanded to virtual sitting for monitoring vital signs, monitoring seizure patients, communicating with patients requiring frequent interactions, and connecting with patients who have high call light usage. Its monitor specialists are currently being trained in empathetic communication, by their Mental Health Department, in order to provide additional support to patients experiencing anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.
Results
Since initiating the virtual sitting program at St. Luke’s Hospital in November of 2021, they have had more than 164,842 hours of patient observation. The program utilizes 16 devices throughout the hospital. Virtual monitoring of patients has improved patient safety through fall reduction and prevention, boosted staff efficiency, and decreased staffing costs by reducing one-to-one sitters.
St. Luke’s primary use of virtual sitting is for fall reduction and prevention. Fifty four percent of patients are admitted to the program for heightened fall risk. The program is estimated to prevent 529 falls per month.
Virtual monitoring has allowed patient care teams to become more efficient by reserving their time for skills, activities and clinical tasks appropriate to their experience, education, and licensure; thus, relieving them of duties that could be safely done by someone else with an alternative skill set. To optimize nursing licensure, St. Luke’s implemented innovative methods of deploying its virtual sitter technology. One example is utilizing monitor staff to check in with patients receiving continuous bladder irrigation, instead of the nurse being required to check in with the patient every 15-20 minutes. Another example is using the virtual monitor assistant to encourage patients to drink their bowel prep solution every 15 minutes, again preventing a nurse from having to do this task.
The cost-effectiveness of the virtual sitter technology compared to traditional methods of one-to-one sitters has been incredibly impactful to St. Luke’s Hospital. In 2023, virtual sitter hours accounted for 39.7 FTEs hospital-wide, while staffed one-to-one sitters amounted to 8.8 FTEs. For 2023, the annual cost savings from its virtual sitting program was over 1.5 million dollars. From 2022-2023, some units in St. Luke’s Hospital saw a decrease in the number of one-to-one sitters by 73% due to the utilization of the virtual sitter program. Looking back to 2018, prior to implementing the virtual sitter program, St. Luke’s Hospital averaged 15.9 FTE of one-to-one sitters. Since 2018, they have decreased one-to-one sitter FTE by about half, which allows those staff members to return to providing bedside care on the unit in addition to adding the support of the virtual sitter program. Virtual sitting improved staffing ratios from one-to-one to one-to-12, sometimes even as high as one-to-16, depending on patient acuity.
Another noteworthy result includes the number of verbal interventions monitor staff perform and their level of patient engagement. St. Luke’s virtual monitor staff consistently performs twice the national average of verbal interventions than others, with more than 20 verbal interactions per patient, per day. The results of the frequent verbal exchanges are that the average number of stat alarms applied monthly at St. Luke’s Hospital ranges between 0.2 – 0.5 per day. The accumulative comparison average of other organizations is 2.0 stat alarms applied each day. Additionally, in 2023, St. Luke’s Hospital bedside care staff reduced alarm response time to 9 seconds, 46% better than the average national response time of 17 seconds in 2023.
Over the course of the two-year project, St. Luke’s nursing leaders have identified three key elements essential to the success of the virtual sitting program: consistent and clear communication; ease of implementation; and patient and staff safety.
Next steps/Lessons learned
As the program continues to mature, St. Luke’s plans to expand virtual sitting for other uses. For example, they recently extended the use of virtual sitting to their discharge lounge, which is designed to accommodate patients who are alert and can walk independently. To provide care for these patients, the rounding specialist welcomes patients to the lounge and performs safety checks, while the virtual safety attendant watches over patients and alerts staff when potential patient safety events occur. The health system is in the process of implementing a hub-and-spoke model, where patients in other facilities can be monitored from one centralized and remote location at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, MN.
They plan to leverage the software program’s AI capabilities to enable them to enhance efficiency and time-savings while also improving the quality of care. Initial applications will help amplify a virtual safety attendant’s capacity for reducing elopement and preventing falls. Safety attendants will remain the “human in the loop” with support from AI, which will alert virtual safety attendants when an at-risk patient tries to stand up or attempts to leave their room. Virtual team members can then intervene before an adverse event occurs. AI will also help with predictive fall risk identification, improving the accuracy of identifying patients at risk of falling, which in turn alleviates the nursing workload associated with fall risk assessments. AI-driven alerts will be delivered directly within the platform, guiding observer attention precisely where it’s most needed.
The integration of virtual sitter technology represents a significant step towards enhancing patient care and streamlining healthcare operations. By considering these key factors, healthcare providers can make informed decisions that contribute to a safer, more efficient, and patient-centric healthcare environment.
In a time where staffing shortages are impacting patient safety, virtual sitting continues to be a proven alternative to 1:1 sitters.
It’s no secret that staffing shortages are having a significant impact on patient safety, particularly when it comes to preventing falls.
Hospitals across the nation have experienced dramatic improvements in fall and 1:1 sitter reduction by adopting the TeleSitter® solution. For example, Community Health Systems (CHS) achieved a remarkable 76% decrease in falls. Similarly, the VA North Texas reduced sitting costs by nearly 90%. These success stories are just a few bright lights among AvaSure’s successful customers.
Over the past decade, nursing research has not only established the feasibility and safety of virtual sitting but has also illuminated its superiority in achieving patient safety outcomes when compared to traditional one-to-one sitting.
Download the latest use case spotlight to take the first step towards patient safety.
While it is established that video monitoring technology (compared with the use of in-person sitters) is a safe and cost-effective solution for hospitals, little is known about the impact of these approaches on nurses’ stress and well-being.
Takeaways:
There were positive effects from video monitoring technology and negative effects of in-person sitters on emotional labor and emotional exhaustion, particularly for nurses lower in commitment.
Explore their journey of virtual patient monitoring from evaluation to implementation to outcomes, including a significant reduction in falls, zero patient falls with injuries in 2022, and improved staffing efficiencies.
Challenge: Reducing patient falls
CHS, one of the largest provider organizations in the United States, operates across 43 distinct markets in 15 states. Their decade-long commitment to high reliability, safety, and harm reduction aligned perfectly with the need to reduce falls during the pandemic in 2021. Hospitals across the nation have been grappling with staffing shortages, leading to nurse burnout and a rise in adverse patient events. As the personnel issue worsened, many healthcare systems asked: How can hospitals create a care system that reduces the need for 1:1 patient sitters while allowing nurses to focus on critical patient care?
Evaluating solutions: Evidence and scalability
In their quest for the right solution, CHS employs a rigorous evaluation process. Their primary criteria encompass two crucial elements: evidence-based effectiveness and scalability. First and foremost, CHS seeks evidence-backed solutions, emphasizing clinical outcomes and operational impacts. This commitment to data-driven decision-making ensures that any chosen solution delivers tangible benefits across both patient care and operational efficiency.
The second key criterion is scalability. Given CHS’s size, the ability to initially implement a solution at a few select hospitals and then scale it elsewhere across the organization is paramount. In this regard, AvaSure’s TeleSitter solution met these criteria for virtual patient monitoring, making it a natural choice to address their needs.
Phase 1 deployment: Keys to success
CHS’s journey with the AvaSure TeleSitter solution commenced with a pilot deployment at three hospitals and then scaled to 17. This pivotal phase yielded notable success, attributed to several critical factors:
Intentionality: The deployment of virtual patient monitoring was marked by a deliberate and well-thought-out strategy. Every step was carefully considered, from initial planning to execution, ensuring a seamless integration of the TeleSitter solution into their healthcare ecosystem.
Metrics that matter: A key driver of success was CHS’s dedication to data-driven decision-making. They recognized the importance of collecting precise and relevant data to assess the impact of the TeleSitter solution accurately. This commitment to meaningful metrics allowed them to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately optimize patient care outcomes.
Leadership and oversight: Strong leadership and dedicated oversight were pivotal throughout the deployment process. Key leaders within CHS played a central role in driving the virtual patient monitoring initiative forward. Their unwavering commitment and guidance ensured that the program remained aligned with the organization’s broader goals and objectives.
Buy-in and Teamwork: CHS understood that achieving the desired results required a collaborative effort. Encouraging buy-in and utilization among staff was essential. Through effective communication, collaboration, and trust, the healthcare team worked together to maximize the benefits of the TeleSitter solution. It became a team effort, with everyone playing a crucial role in its success.
Strategic Patient Selection: CHS recognized the importance of strategic patient selection in applying the technology where it would be most effective. Careful consideration was given to identifying patients who would benefit most from the TeleSitter solution, further optimizing its impact on patient safety and care quality.
This comprehensive approach to the Phase 1 deployment set the stage for CHS’s journey implementing virtual patient monitoring, paving the way for positive clinical and operational results.
Outcomes: Reduction in falls and positive operational and financial impact
Following the completion of the pilot program, CHS embarked on a thorough analysis, which unveiled some significant outcomes.
A Meaningful decrease in falls: While CHS has worked effectively to reduce falls for years, implementation of the TeleSitter solution led to an even greater reduction in falls, including a 76% reduction in one hospital.
Zero patient falls with injuries in 2022: In 2022, CHS reported zero patient falls with injuries at facilities using virtual patient monitoring. This milestone reflects a profound commitment to patient safety.
Savings through injury avoidance: The solution translated into meaningful savings through the avoidance of costs related to patient injuries. In an environment where litigation looms, AvaSure can help mitigate potential liability claims when it comes to falls with injury.
Staffing dfficiencies of 16 to 1: The introduction of virtual sitters had a strong effect on staffing efficiency. With each virtual sitter capable of monitoring up to 16 patients simultaneously, CHS achieved staffing efficiencies of 16 to 1. This efficiency not only optimized staffing allocation but also enabled caregivers in CHS hospitals to work at the top of their licenses and provide more attentive care to a broader patient population.
These outcomes are a testament to CHS’s commitment to excellence, safety, and innovation. AvaSure delivered quantifiable operational benefit and helped reinforce the high standard of patient care and safety across CHS.
Quality and patient care lead to next steps
Today, CHS is poised to expand virtual patient monitoring services. With 87 devices currently in place, CHS plans to add78 more across 12 more hospitals by the end of 2023.
CHS’s innovative approach helps ensure that more patients are kept safe, more healthcare professionals are supported, and the future of healthcare is brighter than ever.
Watch the webinar replay to hear firsthand from CHS about how they expanded their virtual patient monitoring program to enhance patient safety and optimize resource utilization.
Today, CHS is poised to expand virtual patient monitoring services. With 87 devices currently in place, CHS plans to add 78 more across 12 more hospitals by the end of 2023.
See how over 150 hospitals have decreased patient falls while reducing labor costs and staff injuries.
Are you looking to reduce adverse events, like patient falls, without relying on costly 1:1 sitters? While preventing patient falls is a priority, many hospitals are reporting that staff shortages continue to make it more challenging than ever. 1:1 sitters are expensive and pulling CNA and bedside staff is not a good use of resources. How can you provide 24/7 patient monitoring for fall prevention in hospitals while at the same time decreasing your labor costs?
Download our Fall Reduction Summary to see how over 150 hospitals have decreased patient falls while reducing labor costs and staff injuries through a virtual monitoring program.
AvaSure’s TeleSitter Program Can:
Decrease 1:1 sitter usage by up to 90%
Decrease patient falls by up to 66%
Save your hospital millions in labor costs
Download the Fall Reduction Summary to see the full results and details.
Posted on August 31, 2023 by Miranda - Uncategorized
Many hospitals are experiencing staffing shortages, leading to nurse burnout and an increase in adverse events. How can hospitals create a care system that reduces the need for 1:1 patient sitters while enabling nurses to stay focused on other core patient care duties?
In this webinar, you will hear firsthand from CHS about how they expanded their virtual sitting program to enhance patient safety, optimize resource utilization and reduce costs.
Presenters:
Lynn Simon, M.D., MBA, President of Healthcare Innovation and Chief Medical Officer, CHS
Pam Rudisill, DNP, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, CHS
BELMONT, Mich., August 8, 2023 — AvaSure, the market leader in acute virtual care and remote safety monitoring, has invited clinical leaders from Community Health Systems (CHS) to discuss how they deployed virtual sitter technology in their affiliated hospitals to help improve patient safety. During the webinar, to be held at 12:30 pm ET on August 31, CHS executives will share insights into their decision to expand virtual sitting.
CHS sought to use the technology to help reduce patient falls. In doing so, CHS affiliates have also been able to leverage the cost efficiencies of having one virtual sitter monitor 12-16 patients, enabling the hospitals to monitor more patients than with bedside sitters alone – keeping a greater number of potentially vulnerable patients safer.
Presenters:
Lynn Simon, M.D., MBA, President of Healthcare Innovation and Chief Medical Officer, CHS
Pam Rudisill, DNP, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, CHS
“Large, diverse health systems like CHS are continually challenged to optimize staff utilization while ensuring care quality,” said Votruba. “With staffing issues impacting hospitals nationwide, and with burnout on the rise, provider organizations are turning to innovative yet proven technology to ensure consistent and constant patient monitoring. This webinar will illustrate how hospitals and health systems of all sizes can leverage this technology to not only ensure more ‘ears and eyes’ on patients, but to make the most of their precious human resources.”
“As a large company that has focused on patient safety for years, we were excited to take this step forward with virtual sitting technology,” said Dr. Simon. “In addition to monitoring patients, the TeleSitter solution helps address workforce challenges by reducing the need for 1:1 sitters and enabling nurses to stay focused on other core patient care duties.”
CHS operates healthcare delivery systems in 43 distinct markets across 15 states. The company’s subsidiaries own or lease 77 affiliated hospitals with approximately 13,000 beds and operate more than 1,000 sites of care, including physician practices, urgent care centers, freestanding emergency departments, occupational medicine clinics, imaging centers, cancer centers and ambulatory surgery centers.
Currently relied upon in over 1,000 hospitals, the AvaSure TeleSitter® remote patient video monitoring system aims to improve patient safety by preventing falls and injuries, empowering virtual safety attendants to see anywhere in the room.
To learn more about the August 31st webinar and to register to attend, click here.
About AvaSure
AvaSure provides the leading hospital virtual care platform to systems with nursing and staffing shortages that are challenged to significantly reduce labor costs without sacrificing patient health outcomes. Recently recognized by KLAS Research as the leader in reducing the cost of patient care, AvaSure is the pioneer in providing best-in-class, video-based AvaSure TeleSitter® and TeleNurse™ solutions. As a trusted partner of more than 1,000 hospitals, AvaSure combines remote patient monitors, virtual nurses and other providers on a single platform to enhance clinical care without placing any additional burdens on existing staff. To learn more about AvaSure visit www.avasure.com.
About Community Health Systems
Community Health Systems, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest healthcare companies. The Company’s affiliates are leading providers of healthcare services, developing and operating healthcare delivery systems in 43 distinct markets across 15 states. CHS subsidiaries own or lease 77 affiliated hospitals with approximately 13,000 beds and operate more than 1,000 sites of care, including physician practices, urgent care centers, freestanding emergency departments, occupational medicine clinics, imaging centers, cancer centers and ambulatory surgery centers. Shares in Community Health Systems, Inc. are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CYH.” The Company’s headquarters are located in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb south of Nashville. More information about the Company can be found on its website at www.chs.net.
