Topic: Nurse Leadership

We had a fantastic first day of the AvaSure Virtual Symposium focused on Transforming the Industry. “This year, our customers are focused on protecting their patients, making things easier on their care teams and reducing cost”, per Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure. That’s why the theme of this year’s event is Transforming the Industry. We know that customers need to make changes to their care delivery model in light of macro factors and we are here to help.  

Day one’s discussion were focused on various aspects of this care model transition – starting with Virtual Nursing: It’s a Thing, But Where to Start? We then spoke with a customer panel on using the TeleSitter solution to monitor for suicidal patients – an important and underutilized form of virtual monitoring. We ended the day highlighting the superstars of monitor staff programs sharing their best practices on staffing a program.   

Let’s look at some of the key learnings from today: 

Virtual Nursing: It’s a Thing, but Where to Start?

Presenters:

• Sarah Brown MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, UnityPoint Health
• Amy Hassell MSN, RN, Director of Patient Services, UCHealth Virtual Health Center 
  • 89% of hospital and nurse leaders are moderately to extremely interested in virtual nursing, but most are still in planning phases. From our customers on the panel who have implemented, they all say, “just do it”. As our one panelist said, “have courage to try something – create some buzz around it. There’s a lot of work in this, but it’s good work so give it a shot.”  

Early results from virtual nursing pilot panelists:

• Time savings for bedside staff using a TeleNurse for admission and discharge – reduce admission time by 12 minutes and discharge by 15-29 minutes 
• Saw increase in patient experience scores on HCAHPS – 7.6% increase in patient understanding of purpose of taking medication and 2.04% increase in top box score for transition in care 
• Critical care expert TeleNurse helped drive increase in rapid response calls and an unprecedented 25-70% reduction in code blues in combination with deterioration education 

Lesson learned for starting a virtual nursing program:

• Whatever process you’re designing needs to make sense for and solve a need at the bedside. It needs to be easy for the end user, needs to be seamlessly integrated and make sense in building a team effort.  
• Clarify what virtual nursing is – and importantly what it is not – to all team members 
• Need senior leadership buy in but nurse managers and front-line staff buy in is essential – start conversations on the issues they’re having and key pain points to address 
• Just jump in and be willing to iterate – you need to be flexible and be willing to adapt as you gain feedback. The hardest thing to do is just say go and start. 

Keeping Suicidal Patients Safe, Virtually

Panelists:

• Debbie Cronin, RN, Director of Patient Care Services, St.Peter’s Health 
• Kim Beckett, RN Manager – Clinical Surveillance, Ascension Michigan 
• Wesley Wingate, Director Cardiac Telemetry, HCA Methodist
  • You may have to address your hospital policy, but virtual monitoring of low and moderate risk suicide ideation patients is accepted by most governing bodies 
  • If you’re struggling to gain buy in or are skeptical, consider a pilot where a physical sitter is outside the room with a virtual monitor. This will allow a safety net while you gather outcomes of how verbal interventions help prevent adverse events. This can be presented, in addition to research and testimonials, to leadership in order to drive program acceptance. 
  • Device selection is key based on your anticipated use cases. When purchasing devices, if you anticipate using on SI patients make sure you consider ligature risks and buy appropriately, or this can be a challenge down the road. 
  • Training and education of monitor staff here is key – AvaSure provides a great module focused specifically on suicidal patients that can help educate both monitor and front-line staff 
  • Best practice: don’t think about limiting just SI patients in a ratio for your monitor techs, instead make sure they take note of all “busy” patients (could be falls risks, elopement risks, SI or other risk) and ensure they don’t have more than 2 per monitor tech 

Tips, Tricks & Tales from Monitor Staff Superstars

Panelists:

• Kearston Winder, Ascension Via Christi 
• Juliet Aninye, LVN, VA North Texas Health Care System
  • It’s all about communication – communication with the patient and communication with the bedside staff. Ensure you properly introduce yourself and your role to the patient to put them at ease but also ensure there is easy, routine communication between monitor staff and the bedside team for an effective TeleSitting program. 
  • Develop a handoff process – some panelists used a document where monitor techs would note any key interventions or patient/nurse preferences that could be given to the next tech, but whatever your process ensure information can flow from nurse shift to nurse shift and monitor tech to monitor tech 
  • Best practice for veteran facilities: Many of these patients may suffer from PTSD. Ensure your staff when introducing themselves coaches on what a verbal intervention and stat alarm will sound like so they are not startled – especially when sleeping 
  • Best practice: have an escalation pathway on both sides – so that monitor staff know who to escalate to when they can’t reach the nurse and so nurses know who to escalate to when they have feedback for the monitor staff. It all comes down to transparency and good communication. 
  • Build rapport with the patient through conversation, this will help them to respond more positively during intervention periods  

For those who joined us – we hope you enjoyed the first day as much as we did. If you missed it, all of the recorded sessions will be available for viewing next week. Make sure you tune in tomorrow as we have another great day of content including:  

• Change Agents: Creating Awareness, Confidence & Excitement! 
• Centralized Monitoring: Optimizing Labor Across and Entire Health System 
• Fireside Chat with Gerry Lewis

See you tomorrow! – AvaSure Team 

Keynote – John O’Leary

John O’Leary, author and activist, kicked off the day with a moving and motivational talk about thriving in the face of adversity. After 20 months of COVID-19, O’Leary encouraged attendees that the best of the journey to better healthcare is to come.

Throughout his keynote, O’Leary prompted attendees to remind their colleagues at all levels that their work matters. At an early age, O’Leary was burned on 100% of his body in an accident, and he spent much of his childhood in the hospital. Throughout his time there, his doctors empowered everyone from custodians to nurses to be a part of his journey.

Today, O’Leary is grateful for the opportunity to speak to the public at events like the AvaSure Symposium. He thanked the hardworking frontline workers, administrators and staff for all that they do, and reminded everyone that gratitude can create the largest impact, reduce stress and help find joy.

Lunch Time Knowledge Bites

After the keynote presentation, attendees had the choice of two Lunch Time Knowledge Bites sessions:

• Common Challenges & Misconceptions
• Working with Organized Labor & Your TeleSitter® Program

This wide range of topics was perfect for any organization that wants to take a deep dive into their AvaSure TeleSitter^® solution and equip staff with what they need to thrive.

Common Challenges & Misconceptions provided both new and existing AvaSure users with insights into how to optimize among both monitor staff and program leaders. Presenter Wendy Popma-Breen, BSN, BS, RN, Clinical Implementation Services Manager at AvaSure, said that transparency and the sharing of information needs to be a key consideration for hospitals and healthcare systems. In many situations, monitor staff are not aware of the conditions or history of the patients they are monitoring. In order to keep patients safe, monitor staff need to be equipped with as much information as possible. Processes can help alleviate this strain, as well as robust onboarding and continuous learning for all staff.

Panel 1 – Keeping Suicidal Patients Safe, Virtually

After lunch, attendees attended the Keeping Suicidal Patients Safe, Virtually, presented by UC Davis and Benefis Health. Amid the ongoing mental health crisis, healthcare systems are seeing an influx of patients who are struggling with suicidal ideation, especially among adolescents.

Both teams worked closely with AvaSure to implement TeleSitter solutions that can monitor patients and mitigate risk. One of the biggest benefits of the program is the ability for monitor staff to observe patients 24/7, whereas nurses may not see signs of escalation unless they are in the room. In some case uses, the one-on-one option for the TeleSitter provided an opportunity to form a connection with patients who are in crisis, helping them on the road to recovery.

With no end to the crisis in sight, AvaSure continues its commitment to providing tools and resources to help healthcare systems best serve their patients.

Breakout Sessions

The afternoon breakout sessions included:

• Tales from the Front: Early Wins Beget Long-term Success
• Fostering New Use Cases for Virtual Care
• Standing Up to the Surge: Virtual Nurses Help a Health System Manage COVID

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, staffing shortages and a deep freeze that wreaked havoc on much of Texas, Memorial Hermann Health System and its implementation of the TeleSitter program are a case study that all telehealth professionals need to hear.

In July 2020, Memorial Hermann went from initial contact with AvaSure to fully operational coverage of COVID-19 patients in 15 days. Today, Memorial Hermann has over 100 cameras across 12 care facilities in the Houston metro area. The program even allows monitor staff to work from home, when necessary. Their IT team put together workstation kits that included everything an employee would need to work from home alongside their on-site colleagues. When much of the area was hit by an ice storm earlier this year, Memorial Hermann was able to scale its program to continue to provide patients with the safety and monitoring that they needed.

The Memorial Hermann team shared many of the lessons that they learned along the way. For them, staff buy-in was essential, and they made sure that nurses knew that the program was not a critique of their work, but instead, a resource designed to support them. Additional key takeaways included the value of communication, identifying areas of concern, creating an escalation process and developing a pipeline for staffing support.

Panel 2 – Case Closed: Remote Video Monitoring Increases Staff Safety

The final panel of the AvaSure Symposium covered workplace violence. Christina Case, MSN, RN-BC, Clinical Nurse Manager at Providence St. Peter Hospital, presented alongside Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, Chief Clinical Innovation Officer at AvaSure. The duo shared peer-reviewed research, ORNA data and anecdotal evidence on workplace violence and how AvaSure solutions can help prevent it. In fact, ORNA data shows that 17,077 abusive events were prevented at 195 hospitals from July 2017 to July 2021.

Once the TeleSitter was implemented at Providence St. Peter, Case and her team found success in the creation of an educational toolkit. These toolkits improved her staff’s feeling of the program, increased reporting and encouraged engagement. When asked if staff safety was more important than patient safety, Votruba and Case shared that while patient safety is extremely important, it cannot come at the cost of staff safety.

AvaSure sends a sincere thank you to all keynote speakers, moderators, panelists and participants who made the fourth annual AvaSure Symposium a success. Registered attendees will receive a link to the recordings for keynotes, panels and sessions next week.

AvaSure’s fourth annual National Symposium has closed its virtual doors following an inspiring and informative Day 2 on October 7th. Once again, the theme of connection and the growing role of telehealth took center stage as keynote speakers, panelists and presenters shared their insights.

Keynote – John O’Leary

John O’Leary, author and activist, kicked off the day with a moving and motivational talk about thriving in the face of adversity. After 20 months of COVID-19, O’Leary encouraged attendees that the best of the journey to better healthcare is to come.

Throughout his keynote, O’Leary prompted attendees to remind their colleagues at all levels that their work matters. At an early age, O’Leary was burned on 100% of his body in an accident, and he spent much of his childhood in the hospital. Throughout his time there, his doctors empowered everyone from custodians to nurses to be a part of his journey.

Today, O’Leary is grateful for the opportunity to speak to the public at events like the AvaSure Symposium. He thanked the hardworking frontline workers, administrators and staff for all that they do, and reminded everyone that gratitude can create the largest impact, reduce stress and help find joy.

Lunch Time Knowledge Bites

After the keynote presentation, attendees had the choice of two Lunch Time Knowledge Bites sessions:

• Common Challenges & Misconceptions
• Working with Organized Labor & Your TeleSitter® Program

This wide range of topics was perfect for any organization that wants to take a deep dive into their AvaSure TeleSitter^® solution and equip staff with what they need to thrive.

Common Challenges & Misconceptions provided both new and existing AvaSure users with insights into how to optimize among both monitor staff and program leaders. Presenter Wendy Popma-Breen, BSN, BS, RN, Clinical Implementation Services Manager at AvaSure, said that transparency and the sharing of information needs to be a key consideration for hospitals and healthcare systems. In many situations, monitor staff are not aware of the conditions or history of the patients they are monitoring. In order to keep patients safe, monitor staff need to be equipped with as much information as possible. Processes can help alleviate this strain, as well as robust onboarding and continuous learning for all staff.

Panel 1 – Keeping Suicidal Patients Safe, Virtually

After lunch, attendees attended the Keeping Suicidal Patients Safe, Virtually, presented by UC Davis and Benefis Health. Amid the ongoing mental health crisis, healthcare systems are seeing an influx of patients who are struggling with suicidal ideation, especially among adolescents.

Both teams worked closely with AvaSure to implement TeleSitter solutions that can monitor patients and mitigate risk. One of the biggest benefits of the program is the ability for monitor staff to observe patients 24/7, whereas nurses may not see signs of escalation unless they are in the room. In some case uses, the one-on-one option for the TeleSitter provided an opportunity to form a connection with patients who are in crisis, helping them on the road to recovery.

With no end to the crisis in sight, AvaSure continues its commitment to providing tools and resources to help healthcare systems best serve their patients.

Breakout Sessions

The afternoon breakout sessions included:

• Tales from the Front: Early Wins Beget Long-term Success
• Fostering New Use Cases for Virtual Care
• Standing Up to the Surge: Virtual Nurses Help a Health System Manage COVID

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, staffing shortages and a deep freeze that wreaked havoc on much of Texas, Memorial Hermann Health System and its implementation of the TeleSitter program are a case study that all telehealth professionals need to hear.

In July 2020, Memorial Hermann went from initial contact with AvaSure to fully operational coverage of COVID-19 patients in 15 days. Today, Memorial Hermann has over 100 cameras across 12 care facilities in the Houston metro area. The program even allows monitor staff to work from home, when necessary. Their IT team put together workstation kits that included everything an employee would need to work from home alongside their on-site colleagues. When much of the area was hit by an ice storm earlier this year, Memorial Hermann was able to scale its program to continue to provide patients with the safety and monitoring that they needed.

The Memorial Hermann team shared many of the lessons that they learned along the way. For them, staff buy-in was essential, and they made sure that nurses knew that the program was not a critique of their work, but instead, a resource designed to support them. Additional key takeaways included the value of communication, identifying areas of concern, creating an escalation process and developing a pipeline for staffing support.

Panel 2 – Case Closed: Remote Video Monitoring Increases Staff Safety

The final panel of the AvaSure Symposium covered workplace violence. Christina Case, MSN, RN-BC, Clinical Nurse Manager at Providence St. Peter Hospital, presented alongside Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, Chief Clinical Innovation Officer at AvaSure. The duo shared peer-reviewed research, ORNA data and anecdotal evidence on workplace violence and how AvaSure solutions can help prevent it. In fact, ORNA data shows that 17,077 abusive events were prevented at 195 hospitals from July 2017 to July 2021.

Once the TeleSitter was implemented at Providence St. Peter, Case and her team found success in the creation of an educational toolkit. These toolkits improved her staff’s feeling of the program, increased reporting and encouraged engagement. When asked if staff safety was more important than patient safety, Votruba and Case shared that while patient safety is extremely important, it cannot come at the cost of staff safety.

AvaSure sends a sincere thank you to all keynote speakers, moderators, panelists and participants who made the fourth annual AvaSure Symposium a success. Registered attendees will receive a link to the recordings for keynotes, panels and sessions next week.