Posted on June 15, 2023 by Jagmeet - Uncategorized
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 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.”
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.
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.
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!).
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…
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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
A few years ago, it was estimated that by 2030 the U.S. would experience a shortfall of more than half a million nurses, with a huge loss in quality and availability of care.
The pandemic sped up the timeline.
The greatest concern was the potential loss of specialized expertise; two-thirds of 6,000 critical care nurses surveyed in August 2021 said they were considering leaving the field from burnout.
Solutions have been hard to find, but Houston’s Memorial Hermann Health System has tried something new:
As the COVID-19 delta variant spread, critical care nurses were detailed to an existing central video monitoring facility. There, these “virtual nurses” can care for COVID-19 patients across the system, supporting less experienced bedside nurses and improving patient quality and safety.
Key learning objectives of this on-demand webinar:
Discover the basics of virtual care, including the technology and the art of video and audio interactions with patients and bedside staff
Learn about policies and workflows Memorial Hermann established for virtual nursing
Find out how virtual nurses can make the highest use of specialized care resources
Presenters:
Scott Shaver, MSN, LP, RN, CPHIMS, Director of Hospital Information Systems, Memorial Hermann
Mary Ellen Carrillo, MSN, MBA, RN, CVRN, FABC, Chief Nursing Officer, Vice President of Nursing, Memorial Hermann
Jennifer McGuire, Manager, Staffing, Memorial Hermann
