Topic: Patient Safety

Behavioral health needs in hospitals are rising, are you prepared to keep your patients safe? 

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Discover how virtual monitoring for low-to-moderate suicide risk patients can help.

The increasing prevalence of mental health conditions demands innovative approaches to ensure patient safety. Traditional methods like costly 1:1 sitters are unsustainable in the face of labor shortages.  

Over 45% of AvaSure’s clients across the country are embracing virtual sitting for low-to-moderate suicide risk patients, and the results speak for themselves. Increased staff satisfaction, decreased 1:1 sitter costs, and better patient outcomes are just a few of the advantages of implementing the TeleSitter solution. 

Download our latest use case spotlight to access valuable evidence and proven strategies for virtual sitting for low-to-moderate suicide risk patients. 

AONL Industry Insights Webinar: Keeping Pediatric Patients Safe with Virtual Sitting

Caring for children in the inpatient setting presents unique challenges for hospitals across the nation. The situation is exacerbated by persistent staffing shortages and the concurrent mental health crisis amongst young Americans. Hear how nurse leaders at a children’s hospital and an acute-care hospital are using virtual sitting for pediatric and adolescent patients and have succeeded in reducing adverse events while also reducing stress on families and caregivers. This AONL Industry Insights webinar is presented by AvaSure.

UCHealth slashes code blues up to 70% with telehealth technologies

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UCHealth is a nonprofit healthcare organization based in Colorado made up of 12 hospitals across the state. UCHealth had already implemented AvaSure’s TeleSitter® for patient safety and VerifyTM for virtual ICU. Here, they looked at expanding the use of these technologies to create a program they call Virtual Deterioration. Keep reading to learn more about this new case use.

Challenge

Looking to identify deteriorating patients sooner
The organization had a new use case for virtual care, a program called Virtual Deterioration. Through this virtual platform, they were looking to identify patients who were deteriorating in the hospital sooner in order to provide rescue and treatment faster, enhancing better overall outcomes.

Solution

AvaSure reduced Code Blues by as much as 70%
Early outcomes using AvaSure to watch ICU patients for deterioration have shown significant promise in reducing cardiac arrests by as much as 70%. Additionally, UCHealth has seen an increase in rapid response events (26%-86%), while Code Blue rates are plummeting (down 25%-70%), mostly in high-risk areas. UCHealth is also tracking whether patients remain in their current environment instead of being transferred to a higher level of care after an event.

  • Up to an 86% increase in rapid response rates
  • Up to a 152% increase in post–rapid response vitals being ordered and completed

“And so if you are considering any sort of hybrid approach from, for example, a clinical command center or nursing workflows, you want to have a great platform that you feel your staff can use and interact with seamlessly and with ease.”

— Amy Hassell, RN, UCHealth

Read the full article on Healthcare IT News

AvaSure Chief Clinical Officer Lisbeth Votruba Honored Among Becker’s 2023 “Patient Safety Experts to Know”

Lisbeth Votruba

Third-generation nurse recognized for constantly seeking new ways to improve processes and transform safety standards

BELMONT, Mich., May 10, 2023 — AvaSure, the inventor of the TeleSitter® solution and the market leader in acute virtual care and remote safety monitoring, announced today that Chief Clinical Officer Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN has been named among Becker’s Hospital Review’s 2023 “Patient Safety Experts to Know.”

As a third- generation nurse, self-proclaimed “nurses’ nurse,” and nurse executive, Votruba has dedicated her career to the continuous improvement of healthcare and the empowerment of the nursing community and the patients they care for.

Most recently, Votruba elevated her leadership by leveraging technology and innovation to put nurses and their patients at the center of the solution, reducing nurse burnout, improving outcomes, and driving high-quality, value-based patient care.

“Nurses show up to work every day thinking about the best ways they can deliver compassionate care to make a difference in the lives of their patients,” said Votruba. “It is my great honor and calling to support these hard-working professionals who form the foundation of American healthcare.”

Votruba’s primary goal is to advance her vision to revolutionize inpatient care delivery with the addition of virtual technology. Partnering with 36% of academic medical centers and 67% of the largest U.S. health systems, she guides the delivery of inpatient telehealth solutions that have provided safer environments for over 1.5 million patients. She pioneered video monitoring of fall-risk patients and has led several research studies regarding fall risk reduction, the mitigation of workplace violence, and managing behavioral health patients in acute care. Under Votruba’s direction, AvaSure has expanded its own nursing staff to 15% of the employee base to support the change management needed to ensure positive patient outcomes are achieved.

The individuals honored in Becker’s 2023 “Patient Safety Experts to Know” list are noteworthy proponents of patient harm reduction, disease management, disaster preparedness, and more, according to Becker’s.

These healthcare providers, experts, researchers, and executives value patient safety above all. For these patient safety experts, the improvement of the patient journey is of the utmost importance, as they are constantly seeking new ways to improve processes and transform safety standards.

“There is no one more deserving of this award than Lisbeth,” said Adam McMullin, CEO, AvaSure. “She dedicates herself tirelessly to advocating on behalf of nurses, their patients, and our partners, and we’re proud that she has been recognized by Becker’s for this enduring commitment.”

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.

Media Contact:

Marcia Rhodes

Amendola Communications

mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

AvaSure Break Out Session: Tales from the Front: Early Wins Beget Long-term Success

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AvaSure: Break Out Session: Tales from the Front: Early Wins Beget Long-term Success

When staff sees the advantages of new technology, they are more likely to champion widespread use and new applications. Two hospitals describe how they achieved and communicated success right from the beginning of their program.

Presented by:

  • Baptist Medical Center
  • Valley Presbyterian

Fostering New Use Cases

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Fostering New Use Cases in Virtual Care

From falls reduction to stopping elopements from the ED to behavioral health to telehealth visits, providers are pushing the boundaries of remote care (with a little help from AvaSure!).

Presented by Maine Medical

The Evidence Based Case for a Virtual Care Solution

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Read our white paper where peer-reviewed articles and presentations validate AvaSure TeleSitter’s success in improving safety, quality, and productivity outcomes.

Summary

In 2008, AvaSure devised a remote observation technology called the TeleSitter to help hospitals reduce the cost of using one-on-one sitters to avert patient harms. Fourteen years later, that application has evolved into a complete patient observation, communication and analytics solution that improves safety, productivity, and the experience of care. Avasure prizes its technological innovation, but what truly sets it apart is not the new hardware or software; it is evidence-based improvement.

Early on, AvaSure recognized the need for a clinical program to help hospitals and health system…

Provide your information to download the full white paper

Improve Patient Engagement Scores

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Improve Patient Engagement Scores

Sarah Brown MSN, RN, CMPE, NEA-BC at UnityPoint Health, discusses the challenges her nursing staff faced during the pandemic and how this caused massive burnout throughout their system. Quality of care was being compromised, so leadership agreed to make innovative changes and identified the use of AvaSure TeleNurse™ solutions as a potential solve. Sarah noted, “Virtual Nursing in the med-surg area immediately helped our nurses at bedside and has grown astronomically quickly.”

Early results of TeleNurse™ Programs:

  • Increases in HCAHPS: 7.6% increase in patient understanding of purpose of taking medication, 2.04% increase in top box score for transition of care
  • Discharges completed by the virtual nurse currently have lower rates of readmission – this is an early trend; they’re waiting to see more results over time to consider it correlated