Topic: Virtual Nursing

AvaSure Achieves 2026 Epic Toolbox Designation for Inpatient Virtual Care

Posted on July 15, 2026 by - Featured, Uncategorized

Image of AvaSure in the Epic Showroom mocked up on a laptop screen

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – July 15, 2026 – AvaSure, the leading virtual care and smart room platform for hospitals, today announced that its virtual care platform has received an Epic Toolbox designation for 2026 in the Inpatient Virtual Care category. The designation recognizes that AvaSure meets Epic’s recommended practices for integration and functionality, enabling clinical workflows to leverage virtual care capabilities when and where care happens for patients.

As health systems invest in smart hospital room strategies, the challenge is no longer deploying individual technologies – it’s connecting them into a unified clinical experience. AvaSure serves as the platform layer that brings virtual care, AI applications, patient engagement technologies, and the EHR together on a single platform. By providing shared access to in-room audio, video, and clinical workflows, AvaSure enables health systems to adopt new innovations over time while protecting existing technology investments. AvaSure’s open architecture creates compounding value as the smart room ecosystem grows — every new AI partner that integrates with the platform makes it more capable for every connected health system, backed by a roadmap shaped by real-world clinical needs.

Built to align with Epic’s recommended practices for Embedded Context-Aware Linking (ECAL) and Context-Aware Linking (CAL), AvaSure enables seamless virtual care experience directly within Epic workflows, including:

  • Virtual Visits: Launch virtual visits directly from Epic user interfaces, allowing clinicians to connect with patients and care team members without leaving Epic.
  • Continuous Observation with Epic Monitor: Combine AvaSure’s clinical-grade virtual care infrastructure with Epic Monitor Remote Sitter capabilities to support centralized patient observation and rapid response for fall prevention, patient safety, staff duress, and other clinical workflows.
  • MyChart Bedside TV: Extend virtual care to the patient room TV through an embedded MyChart Bedside TV experience, making it easier for patients to connect with caregivers and care services.

Receiving the 2026 Toolbox designation reflects AvaSure’s ongoing commitment to delivering integrated virtual care experiences that fit naturally into clinician workflows. What sets AvaSure apart is a true secure and open architecture — the ability to integrate not only with Epic, but with a wide range of third-party systems, devices, and applications. This flexibility allows hospitals to design smart room workflows tailored to their unique needs, maximize existing technology investments, and drive innovation across the enterprise.

“Every technology investment in healthcare must deliver measurable value,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure. “AvaSure has helped health systems reduce the cost of care by more than $826 million through virtual care programs that improve operational efficiency, workforce sustainability, and patient safety. Receiving Epic Toolbox designation for 2026 further strengthens our ability to deliver those outcomes through seamless integration with the workflows clinicians rely on every day, helping health systems maximize and protect the investments they have already made in Epic.”
–Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure

With more than 1,200 hospital customers and over 15 years of experience helping health systems deploy and scale virtual care programs, AvaSure continues to advance the future of inpatient care through intelligent virtual care technology, AI-enabled workflows, and proven clinical outcomes.

To learn more about AvaSure’s Virtual Care Platform and its Epic integrations, schedule a call today.

Epic and MyChart are registered trademarks of Epic Systems Corporation.

Learn more about the integration

About AvaSure

AvaSure® is the virtual care platform powering the smart room — connecting care teams, clinical workflows, and AI applications to extend the reach of caregivers, advance patient safety, and deliver measurable outcomes across every care setting. The platform meets the highest enterprise IT standards and is backed by a clinical team representing 15% of AvaSure’s staff. With 15+ years of clinical expertise, 1,200+ hospital partners, and experience across 5,000+ deployments, AvaSure consistently delivers 6x ROI and is trusted by health systems across North America. To learn more, visit AvaSure.com.

Anuvia Pioneers a First-of-Its-Kind Virtual Nursing Model for Behavioral Health and Addiction Treatment with VirtuAlly and AvaSure

Posted on June 2, 2026 by - Featured, Popular

AvaSure, Anuvia, and VirtuAlly logos

Three Teams. One Mission. A First-of-Its-Kind Virtual Care Model

CHARLESTON, S.C., June 2, 2026 – Anuvia Prevention & Recovery Center, VirtuAlly, and AvaSure have successfully launched a purpose-built virtual nursing program designed specifically for the unique clinical environment of substance use and behavioral health treatment.

Substance use and residential behavioral health programs face the same nationwide nursing shortages as acute care, often with fewer resources and tighter regulatory oversight. This virtual nursing program extends access to experienced nurses 24/7, strengthening client safety, supporting regulatory compliance, and enabling cost-effective care delivery without expanding on-site staffing.

This go-live marks a first: a virtual care model intentionally designed for a residential treatment setting, where client complexity, strict regulatory requirements, and the realities of a nonprofit healthcare environment demand far more than an off-the-shelf approach.

Anuvia, a CARF-accredited nonprofit serving the Charlotte, North Carolina region, provides a comprehensive continuum of substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment for adults, adolescents, and veterans. Services include residential treatment with withdrawal management, medication-assisted treatment (MAT), medication management, outpatient programs for substance use disorder and mental health services, and community-based behavioral healthcare. Integrating virtual nursing into an environment like Anuvia’s required all three organizations to think differently, collaborate closely, and address challenges that had not previously been encountered in this type of care setting.

Why This Setting Is Different

Acute hospital virtual nursing programs are becoming increasingly common. But Anuvia is not a hospital, and that distinction matters.

Substance use treatment facilities operate under a different regulatory framework. In North Carolina, residential programs are governed by stringent state guidelines and accredited by CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities), an internationally recognized accreditor for health and human services organizations. Individuals served at Anuvia are navigating complex physical and emotional recovery journeys that often involve substance use and behavioral health treatment, medication-assisted treatment, and management of chronic physical and behavioral health needs. The care provided must be highly individualized, relationship-centered, and designed to support long-term wellness and recovery.

Deploying virtual nursing in this environment required rethinking workflows, redefining how on-site and virtual teams collaborate, and building clinical processes with regulatory compliance embedded from the start. Not retrofitted later.

It also required a cost-conscious approach. As a nonprofit, Anuvia is committed to directing resources toward client care. Virtual nursing created a path to strengthen clinical support without expanding in-house staffing, but only if the model was designed with that reality in mind.

How the Three Teams Built Something New

The foundation for this program was established before any technology was selected.

VirtuAlly’s clinical and implementation teams worked alongside Anuvia’s leadership and frontline staff to understand the problem before designing the solution. This included assessing staffing realities; mapping nursing use cases specific to residential substance use treatment; identifying workflow gaps; and defining the clinical, operational, and compliance requirements that guided every decision.

AvaSure was selected as the virtual care platform partner for this deployment, bringing a scalable, enterprise-ready foundation. By leveraging an established technology platform and aligning it with VirtuAlly’s clinical workflows and program design, the teams were able to accelerate deployment without starting from scratch. Together, VirtuAlly’s clinical expertise and AvaSure’s platform enabled a solution tailored to Anuvia’s environment.

The result is a virtual nursing model that supports 24/7 clinical availability across three critical functions:

  • Admission Screening of Clients: VirtuAlly nurses provide around-the-clock screening to ensure individuals are medically appropriate for admission before entering the residential program.
  • Medication Review at Admission: During admission, virtual nurses review and verify client-provided medications to support accurate documentation and ensure individuals enter the program with a clear and complete medication profile.
  • Triage of Acute Medical Need: When urgent clinical situations arise, VirtuAlly nurses provide immediate virtual triage support, extending the clinical decision-making capacity of Anuvia’s on-site team at any hour.

AvaSure’s virtual care and smart room platform enables real-time clinical intervention through two-way virtual care devices and virtual visit capabilities, alongside continuous observation, AI-powered fall prevention, and elopement detection.

One standout innovation developed through this collaboration is virtual medication verification. VirtuAlly nurses support on-site staff by reviewing client-provided, home medications, helping ensure everyone arrives with the medications needed for a successful treatment stay. This process focuses on medication inventory and documentation, supporting accuracy and continuity of care.

Throughout implementation, VirtuAlly also provided consultative support beyond standard deployment, helping Anuvia navigate program changes, adapt to evolving service definitions, and ensure workflows align with the expectations of the North Carolina Board of Nursing, CARF, and state oversight bodies.

Looking Ahead

“Behavioral health and addiction treatment has been underserved by virtual care for too long. What we built with Anuvia and AvaSure proves that a clinically rigorous, purpose-built virtual nursing model works in this setting. That matters for Anuvia’s clients today, and for every organization in this space wondering if it’s possible.” — Joe Weschler, CEO, VirtuAlly

“Anuvia’s approach to bringing together the right solutions to address a complex challenge demonstrates how innovation and outcomes must go hand in hand. By aligning technology with a clearly defined care model, they’ve improved client safety, enhanced quality of care, supported their teams, and increased operational efficiency. This is the future of virtual care. Scalable solutions that deliver both clinical impact and economic value.” — Adam McMullin, CEO, AvaSure

VirtuAlly’s customer success team remains actively engaged with Anuvia to refine workflows, evolve service delivery, and build toward measurable outcomes in client safety and care quality. As the program matures, all three organizations plan to share learnings that can help inform how the broader behavioral health and addiction treatment sector approaches virtual care.

The work at Anuvia is a proof point, not a ceiling. As virtual care continues to expand beyond acute settings, this program offers a replicable model for behavioral health and addiction treatment organizations looking to strengthen clinical capacity, meet regulatory standards, and deliver better outcomes for the people they serve.

About VirtuAlly

VirtuAlly is the virtual clinical care team built to extend the capabilities of bedside nurses, strengthen patient safety, and deliver outcomes that health systems can measure. Founded at MUSC, VirtuAlly is one of only three federally recognized Telehealth Centers of Excellence in the country and among the first virtual nursing organizations to achieve Joint Commission Accreditation. VirtuAlly delivers virtual nursing, telesitting, remote patient monitoring, and telemetry, purpose-built for the real demands of today’s care environment. To learn more, visit virtually.io.

VirtuAlly Media Contact:
Megan Pino
412-999-2301
Mpino@virtually.io

About AvaSure

AvaSure® is the virtual care platform powering the smart room — connecting care teams, clinical workflows, and AI applications to extend the reach of caregivers, advance patient safety, and deliver measurable outcomes across every care setting. The platform meets the highest enterprise IT standards and is backed by a clinical team representing 15% of AvaSure’s staff. With 15+ years of clinical expertise, 1,200+ hospital partners, and experience across 5,000+ deployments, AvaSure consistently delivers 6x ROI and is trusted by health systems across North America. To learn more, visit AvaSure.com.

AvaSure Media Contact:
Rachel Ford Hutman
301-801-5540
Rachel@fordhutmanmedia.com

Becker’s Names Lisbeth Votruba, AvaSure’s Chief Clinical Officer, as a Top Patient Safety Expert to Know in 2026

Posted on May 26, 2026 by - Popular

Image of Lisbeth Votruba with badge for 2026 patient safety experts to know

Representing a wide range of roles across hospitals, health systems and healthcare companies, these patient safety experts are united by their unwavering commitment to ensuring that every patient receives safe, effective care. Their work touches every corner of the care continuum, from preventable harm reduction and complex disease management to disaster preparedness.

Beyond just following policy and protocol, these leaders continuously question the status quo, engineer smarter processes, and hold their organizations to ever-higher standards.

Lisbeth Votruba, RN. Chief Clinical Officer at AvaSure (Belmont, Mich.). Ms. Votruba has significantly advanced patient safety through virtual technology at AvaSure. She has driven the company’s growth, providing safer environments for patients and achieving hundreds of millions of live monitoring hours. Ms. Votruba pioneered video monitoring for fall-risk patients and has authored several research articles on virtual care’s benefits. She created eLearning modules for clinicians and hosted numerous national webinars to promote patient safety. Her leadership at AvaSure continues to revolutionize patient safety and care delivery.

“It was almost 20 years ago that I caught the patient safety bug as an ICU nurse when our hospital participating in Peter Pronovost MD, PhD, FCCM ground-breaking CLABSI research. Watching the power of evidence-based practice dramatically improve outcomes for patients shaped the trajectory of my career and my passion for transforming care delivery.

That’s why it feels especially meaningful, all these years later, to be recognized by Becker’s Healthcare as one of the Patient Safety Experts to Know of 2026 alongside Dr. Pronovost and many other luminaries like Patricia McGaffiganJonathan Perlin, MD, PhD.

Patient safety work is never finished especially now as we are evolving with virtual care, AI and new models of delivery. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to design safer, smarter and more human-centered models of care.”

– Lisbeth Votruba

Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, FAONL, CAVRN Chief Clinical Officer of AvaSure

As a third-generation nurse, Lisbeth envisions revolutionizing inpatient care delivery through virtual technology. She is a pioneering nurse executive committed to continuously improving healthcare and diffusing new technologies to enhance patient and staff safety. Lisbeth is recognized for her compassionate leadership, promotion of the nursing profession, and commitment to safeguarding the dignity and quality of care for patients, families, and healthcare professionals. She published one of the first research articles on video monitoring for patient safety in 2016.

Read more about the safety experts shaping healthcare.

Extending Ambient Intelligence from the Patient Room to the OR

Posted on May 26, 2026 by - Featured, Popular

AvaSure and Apella partner to deliver purpose-built ambient intelligence across the enterprise – helping hospitals avoid the compromises of one-size-fits-all platforms. 

Hospitals are under increasing pressure to improve throughput, support overstretched care teams, and deliver measurable operational and financial outcomes amid rising costs, reduced reimbursement, and staffing challenges. 

That is why AvaSure and Apella have formed a strategic alliance to bring connected ambient intelligence across the hospital – from inpatient care environments to the operating room. 

AvaSure delivers one of the most widely adopted virtual care, ambient AI, and smart room platforms designed to optimize inpatient workflows, reduce costs, and expand access to care, while Apella provides real-time perioperative intelligence that helps surgical teams improve OR utilization, reduce delays, and optimize procedural flow with measurable operational and financial impact. 

Together, the partnership helps hospitals improve throughput, coordination, and operational performance across the enterprise. 

“Health systems are looking for technology investments that deliver measurable operational and financial value. By bringing together AvaSure’s virtual care platform and Apella’s perioperative intelligence capabilities, we are helping hospitals improve efficiency across critical care environments while driving verifiable financial and clinical outcomes – creating a stronger foundation for enterprise-wide operational transformation.” 
— Adam McMullin

Helping Hospitals Improve Operational and Financial Performance

Operational inefficiencies across inpatient and perioperative environments can have a significant impact on hospital capacity, staffing, and financial performance. Delays in patient progression, underutilized OR time, fragmented workflows, and administrative burden all contribute to rising costs and operational friction. 

“Together, Apella and AvaSure deliver what most hospitals prioritize when it comes to their investments in modern AI: real operational ROI. Novel, trustworthy data is the starting point to delivering better outcomes for patients and care teams alike. Apella and AvaSure have collectively built the specialized expertise needed to optimize workflows across the entire surgical, pre-op, and post-op lifecycle.” 
— Jordan Tuttle, Apella Co-Founder and COO 

Together, AvaSure and Apella help hospitals create greater operational visibility and workflow intelligence across the enterprise — enabling teams to improve throughput, optimize existing resources, and contribute to their bottom line. 

Driving Operational Performance Across the Hospital 

Through virtual care workflows, AvaSure helps health systems accelerate patient progression, streamline care coordination, and improve inpatient throughput. Apella extends real-time operational intelligence into the perioperative environment, helping surgical teams improve scheduling accuracy, reduce delays, and optimize OR utilization. 

Organizations using AvaSure have achieved: 

  • 11.6% reduction in length of stay  
  • 16% reduction in ED holding time  
  • 31% reduction in discharge turnaround time  

Organizations leveraging Apella have achieved: 

  • 24% improvement in scheduling accuracy  
  • 69-minute average reduction in surgical delays  
  • 56 additional block hours per OR, per month  

Delivering Measurable Financial Impact 

By helping hospitals optimize workflows and make better use of existing staff and capacity, both organizations are driving measurable financial outcomes. 

At Houston Methodist, Apella helped generate approximately $2.2 million in additional revenue during a pilot focused on improving surgical block utilization and OR efficiency.  

Meanwhile, Hackensack Meridian Health achieved approximately $1.6 million in cost savings through AvaSure virtual care initiatives driven by nurse retention improvements, reduced agency spend, length of stay improvements, readmission reductions, falls prevention, and reductions in CLABSI and CAUTI events. 

In addition, AvaSure virtual sitter programs have helped health systems save more than $826 million in labor costs. And hospitals using Apella increase capacity for two more surgical cases per OR per month without the cost of additional facilities, staff, or overtime.  

Purpose-Built Intelligence for High-Impact Care Environments 

As health systems evaluate AI strategies, many are recognizing that different care environments require different operational workflows, data models, and intelligence capabilities. 

Rather than forcing hospitals into generalized platforms designed to approach every environment the same way, AvaSure and Apella bring specialized intelligence to the areas where operational coordination, workflow efficiency, and resource optimization matter most. 

By combining intelligent virtual care with AI-driven perioperative workflow intelligence, the partnership helps hospitals extend ambient intelligence across the enterprise while supporting the unique operational needs of both inpatient and surgical environments. 

Contact us to learn more.

Nurses Week: How Supporting Nurse Wellbeing Starts with Safer Care Environments 

Posted on May 5, 2026 by - Featured, Uncategorized

virtual nurse on video checks on patient in bed

More than half of U.S. nurses report burnout and ongoing mental health challenges — impacting both caregiver wellbeing and patient outcomes. 

National Nurses Week and Mental Health Awareness Month share the same calendar for good reason. The people we trust most with our lives are facing a crisis of their own. More than half of U.S. nurses report burnout and mental health challenges, impacting both caregiver wellbeing and patient outcomes. Burnout affects up to 56% of the nursing workforce, driven by high stress, chronic understaffing, and administrative burden. In recent years, there has been an influx of nurse walkouts and strikes. In January 2026, roughly 15,000 nurses in New York walked off the job in what became the largest nurse strike in the state’s history—a breaking point fueled by dangerous understaffing, rising workplace violence, and unsustainable workloads.” This moment presents an important opportunity to better support nurses and strengthen the care they provide every day. 

When nurses are overwhelmed, everyone feels it. Patient safety suffers. Staff turnover climbs. And the cycle only deepens. Our nurses give 12+ hours a day to caring for others — but who is caring for them? They are some of the most resilient people in any room, but resilience has its limits. Protecting the people who protect us is essential to the wellbeing of patients and staff alike. Among the many steps that can be taken, the most direct path forward is creating safer, more supportive care environments to support nurse wellbeing. 

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is leading that charge, advocating for mental health resources, workforce sustainability, and the recognition nurses have long deserved. This Nurses Week, join the movement: download the ANA Nurses Week social toolkit to celebrate and honor the nurses who show up for all of us, every single day. 

Technology That Supports Nurses — Not Adds to Their Burden

One way to create safer and more supportive environments for nurses is through virtual care, which plays a key role in reducing cognitive load and administrative tasks, improving staffing flexibility, and creating safer, calmer environments that support mental wellbeing. Improving nurse satisfaction and retention is the #1 reason health systems implement virtual nursing. 

Virtual nursing is reshaping how care teams work, both at the bedside and beyond. Through virtual platforms, nurses and care managers can support bedside teams in real time, helping to educate patients, streamline admissions and discharge paperwork, and automate documentation. This direct, uninterrupted access to patients reduces errors and gaps in the medical record, while freeing floor nurses to focus on what matters most: hands-on patient care. The result is a smarter, more intentional care model — one where RNs, CNAs, and virtual nurses each contribute based on their unique skills and experience, ensuring every patient interaction is handled by the right person at the right time. Beyond the bedside, virtual nursing tools also bridge the gap between hospital staff and external care providers, enabling real-time collaboration that streamlines care transitions and prevents delays in securing post-discharge services. 

Caring Out Loud: A Chief Clinical Officer’s Vision for Supporting Nurses 

AvaSure’s Chief Clinical Officer, Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, FAONL, CAVRN, joined This Week Health’s Nurses Week podcast to talk about what nursing needs most right now and how technology makes it possible. 

A trained nurse practitioner and third generation nurse whose entrepreneurial spirit led her to AvaSure 14 years ago, Lisbeth champions the idea of getting back to old-fashioned, hands-on nursing care and sees ambient listening as one of the most direct paths to get there. Ambient listening is an AI-driven tool that works quietly in the background and can act as a workplace safety tool. If a nurse is feeling in danger, they can simply speak a wake word to trigger an alarm and get help. 

Additionally, ambient listening allows nurses to go hands-free while documenting and give their full attention to the patient — no big computer monitor in the way. Lisbeth introduced this concept as “caring out loud”: verbalizing documentation in real time to keep patients connected to their care while shining a light on everything nurses do. It is important to note that when it comes to documentation, nursing workflows can be more complex than physician workflows as they have less of a natural narrative structure. This is why Lisbeth emphasizes that this technology must be built around the nurse so that they do not have to change the way they interact with patients in order for the AI to document the correct takeaways:

“We want to make sure that the tools are trained to serve the nurses, not the nurses having to be trained to serve the tool.”  

– Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, FAONL, CAVRN, Chief Clinical Officer at AvaSure

As Chief Clinical Officer at AvaSure, Lisbeth ensures nurses have a seat at the table, bringing the clinical lens necessary to redefine workflows and shape the future of care delivery. 

Virtual Care’s Real-World Effect on Nurses 

Virtual Care has been supporting nurses across the US, and there are results to prove it. Through scaling their virtual nursing program, Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) saw outstanding results that directly benefitted their RNs: 

  • 26% reduction in RN overtime 
  • 65% reduction in RN traveler hours 
  • 9% decrease in documentation time for bedside staff 
  • 12% reduction in length of stay 

As their virtual care journey continues, HMH continues to create an improved environment for nurses, and saw a 28% decrease in RN turnover in the first seven months of their recent care units to go live with virtual nursing. 

Results like these prove how virtual care eases the workload on nurses, creating a healthier work environment for clinical staff, a better experience for patients, and a more efficient health system overall.

Empowering the Next Generation of Nurses 

Virtual nursing isn’t just transforming how we care for patients today; it’s helping to build the nursing workforce of tomorrow. New nurses entering the workforce are already under strain. Virtual nurses serve as an always-available resource for recent graduates and novice nurses — offering real-time mentorship, immediate feedback, and helping new clinicians grow. As virtual care becomes more integrated into hospital workflows and standard care delivery models, it is essential to prepare the next generation of nurses to thrive in this environment. This can include embedding virtual care training into new nurse onboarding and strengthening collaboration between academia and healthcare organizations to support smoother transitions from education to practice.

How AvaSure Cares for Nurses

Nurses are the backbone of healthcare, and for over 18 years, AvaSure has provided them with tools to protect, support, and empower their work. Our intelligent virtual care platform enables virtual care in a diverse range of settings and use cases, with advanced AI, flexible devices, a vast partner ecosystem, real-time insights, and world-class service and support team to guide you every step of your virtual care journey. 

AvaSure is committed to clinical partnership, not just technology delivery. Our clinical team is built by nurses, for nurses — and that foundation shapes everything from how the platform is designed to how it is deployed and supported. Our Clinical Implementation team is 100% nurses who maintain active RN licenses, and along with Chief Clinical Officer Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, FAONL, CAVRN, and AvaSure’s Chief Nursing Executive Advisory Board, they lead the clinical vision behind AvaSure. Because AvaSure’s clinical experts have lived the realities of nursing, they are uniquely positioned to design virtual care solutions that reduce burnout rather than add to it. The result is a platform that nurses can embrace and trust. 

How to Support Nurses Every Day

National Nurses Week is once a year, but nurses deserve recognition every day. There is nothing more important than protecting those that care for us and consistently showing them our appreciation. AvaSure knows that building safer, healthier environments for nurses is an ongoing collaborative effort, and we are dedicated to making that commitment. From innovative monitoring solutions that reduce the physical and emotional burden on nursing staff, to fostering a culture where nurses feel seen, supported, and valued, AvaSure stands alongside the nursing community not just during National Nurses Week, but through every long shift, every difficult moment, and every triumph in between.

Contact us to see how AvaSure can start supporting your nursing team today.

See how smart room technology is continuing to improve nurse safety, mental health, & job satisfaction.

Common Questions

Virtual nursing is the use of virtual care and advanced AI to assist bedside nurses and hospital staff by automating daily clinical workflows like administrative tasks, intake, rounding, admission & discharge, and more. The American Nursing Association describes virtual nursing as a resource that “support(s) the team at the bedside to alleviate the workload and provide greater satisfaction for both the patients and the nursing staff.” 

Nurse burnouts are caused by a number of factors, mainly including chronic understaffing, time-consuming administrative tasks, heavy workloads, workplace violence, long hours, and emotional fatigue. Burnout affects up to 56% of the nursing workforce. 

Creating safer and more supportive environments and listening to nurses’ needs is one of the best ways to prevent nurse burnout. Virtual care helps to prevent nurse burnout by reducing cognitive load and administrative tasks, improving staffing flexibility, and creating safer, calmer environments that support mental wellbeing. 

Through virtual nursing, nurses and care managers can support teams at the bedside to educate patients, complete admissions and discharge paperwork, automate documentation, and mentor more novice nurses. This allows virtual nurses to have direct, uninterrupted time with patients, leading to less errors or gaps in documentation and freeing up floor nurses to care for their patients at the bedside. This also ensures smoother transitions and shorter delays of care for patients. 

Virtual nursing helps with staffing shortages because it allows nurses to return to the bedside and focus on direct patient care, which reduces burnout, increases efficiency in managing workloads, and helps patients receive care more quickly. 

Virtual care tools can reduce workload, improve communication, and enhance patient monitoring—helping nurses focus on high-value care while minimizing stress and burnout. 

Organizations can invest in supportive technologies, prioritize safe staffing levels, provide mental health resources, and create environments where nurses feel heard and supported. 

National Nurses Week, observed each year from May 6–12, recognizes the vital contributions of nurses across the country. It’s also an important moment to spotlight the challenges they face and the need for meaningful support. 

How to Advance Your Virtual Care Journey & Measure Success

Posted on May 4, 2026 by - Featured

graphic of the front page of the HMH whitepaper

As virtual care matures, the question is no longer whether virtual care can work, but how it works best in different environments, and how success should be measured. Real-world results matter, even early in the journey. Early signals for clinicians, like decreases in re-admission or decreases in time spent on charting, are strong indicators of long-term financial outcomes. 

Download the guide to see real-world results from Hackensack Meridian Health’s virtual care journey and learn:

  • How to measure success that actually matters for your health system — not just replicate another’s model
  • How HMH achieved $1.6M in cost avoidance across nurse retention, length of stay, readmissions, falls, and more
  • How to spot early signs of success in your virtual care program
  • Why early clinical wins are just as important as long-term financial outcomes

Virtual Nursing Deployment: Strategic Checklist and ROI Scorecard

Posted on March 26, 2026 by - Featured

image for the virtual nursing deployment checklist

Are you ready to take actionable steps to deploy your virtual nursing program?

Download the checklist to uncover:

  • A straightforward one page checklist with step by step actions, details, and insights.
  • A readiness and ROI scorecard to help you determine which first use case is right for your program.

Once you have downloaded the checklist, read our whitepaper to dive even deeper into how to advance your virtual care journey and measure success, with real-world virtual nursing results from Hackensack Meridian Health.

The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP): How Virtual Care Can Benefit Rural Hospitals 

Posted on February 23, 2026 by - Featured, Uncategorized

rural land

Key Takeaways:

  • The Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) provides $50B in CMS funding (2026–2030) to strengthen rural hospitals. 
  • States submitted transformation plans prioritizing technology, workforce resilience, and AI. 
  • Virtual nursing, TeleHealth, and tele-specialty consults directly align with RHTP goals. 
  • Hospitals can use RHTP funds to reduce falls, overtime, sitter costs, and specialty care gaps. 
  • Sustainable virtual care models reinvest efficiency savings beyond federal funding. 

What is the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP)?

Rural and community hospitals face critical workforce shortages and financial distress, with nearly half operating at a loss as of 2023, according to an AHA analysis of RAND Hospital Cost data. To address these pressures and improve care quality, Congress established the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) under the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This $50 billion Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiative (FY 2026–2030) provides $10 billion annually to strengthen rural healthcare and offset projected funding gaps. 

How CMS Administers RHTP Funding

States are the direct recipients and had to submit a Rural Health Transformation Plan for CMS approval. Half of the funding is divided equally among participating states—guaranteeing at least $100 million per year for five years if all states join—while the other half is distributed via a CMS formula. This massive pool supports infrastructure, technology, and workforce improvements for nearly 1,800 rural hospitals and 60 million residents.

How Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) Benefit from RHTP Funding 

While all rural providers are eligible, the nation’s 1,350 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) stand to benefit most, particularly in the Midwest and states like Texas, Iowa, and Kansas. By investing in these hospitals, the RHTP aims to prevent closures, preserve essential services like emergency and maternity care, and improve health outcomes in rural America.

How can telehealth and virtual care benefit rural hospitals? 

RHTP applications from numerous states have revealed a priority among rural hospitals: the use of telehealth and virtual care to help extend and improve care where things like specialty care are often unavailable.

virtual nurse checking in on patient and bedside nurse

By integrating telehealth, rural facilities can bridge the “specialty gap,” allowing local doctors to consult with world-class neurologists or cardiologists in real-time without transferring the patient. This “keep it local” approach not only improves patient outcomes during emergencies but also stabilizes the hospital’s finances by retaining admissions and reducing the reliance on expensive traveling staff. In addition, by leveraging AI and virtual care, rural hospitals can expand local access and boost financial sustainability while delivering higher-quality care. These innovations do more than just improve patient outcomes and ROI; they actively reduce safety risks like falls, alleviate staff burnout, and foster collaborative models of care. See how Hackensack Meridian Health improved nurse satisfaction and patient outcomes through virtual nursing. 

How do states plan to use their funding for the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP)? 

States submitted plans in December 2025 that had to meet specific criteria defined by CMS. Funding for these plans was released in January 2026. The plans had to address how hospitals will: 

  • Prioritize the use of new and emerging technologies including AI to improve rural health outcomes 
  • Improve access to care locally 
  • Enhance quality metrics for rural patients 
  • Foster partnerships (e.g. small hospitals collaborating with larger systems) and ensure financial stability of rural providers 
  • Tackle causes of rural hospital closure 

How can hospitals leverage RHTP funding? 

1. Engage State RHTP Leadership 

Coordinate with your state health department or Medicaid agency to include virtual care in your Rural Health Transformation Plan. Highlight its impact on workforce resilience and patient safety. 

2. Develop a Turnkey Proposal with AvaSure 

Work with AvaSure to submit a fundable plan covering: 

  • Platform deployment and configuration 
  • Clinical and operational workflow redesign 
  • Staff training and ongoing support 
  • Continuous performance measurement 

3. Measure and Report Outcomes 
 
To strengthen your case, align the stated goals to the RHTP program and track them. The outcomes that AvaSure has benchmarked with partner hospitals with virtual care programs are:  

  • 72% improvement in 1:1 sitter usage 
  • 11.6% improvement in length of stay 
  • 26% improvement in RN overtime 
  • 30-50% improvement in falls  

4. Build a Sustainable Model 

Reinvest efficiency savings and improved performance outcomes to sustain virtual nursing operations post-RHTP funding. 

AvaSure’s maturity model provides a strategic roadmap for health systems to transition from initial pilots to a fully integrated virtual care delivery system. It serves as a vital framework for leaders to benchmark their current capabilities and identify the specific infrastructure and workflow milestones required to reinvest efficiency savings and sustain high-performance virtual nursing long after the conclusion of RHTP funding. 

avasure's maturity model

How AvaSure Aligns with the Rural Health Transformation Program 

AvaSure, the industry leader in virtual nursing and continuous patient monitoring, helps hospitals extend nursing capacity, reduce falls and sitter costs, and enhance care quality through a proven operational model. AvaSure’s virtual care platform is fully aligned with RHTP’s focus on technology-enabled workforce transformation.  
 
RHTP Funding Categories Supported by AvaSure: 

  • Workforce development and modernization 
  • Technology-enabled patient care and safety 
  • Training and technical assistance 
  • Quality and efficiency improvement initiatives 

The Rural Health Transformation Program prioritizes initiatives that stabilize and modernize the healthcare workforce, improve patient safety, and enable sustainable operations in rural hospitals. AvaSure supports all three objectives by bringing virtual nursing and continuous observation into daily hospital operations: 

  1. Virtual Nursing: Augments bedside teams with remote nurses who handle admissions, discharges, and patient education to reduce admin burden. 
  2. Continuous Observation (TeleSitting): Centralized video observation reduces falls, elopements, and 1:1 sitter costs. 
  3. Specialty Consults: Consult with specialists in another location to expand care without having to move your patient.  

This in turn leads to benefits such as:  

  • Workforce Flexibility: Reduces overtime, improves staff retention, and increases productivity.
  • Patient Safety: Delivers continuous monitoring and rapid response support. 

Ultimately, access to care and physician specialists remains one of the most pressing challenges for rural hospitals, leading many to prioritize specialty health and telehealth consults in their strategic applications. To effectively remedy these gaps, it is essential to select a virtual care platform that leverages the specific partnerships necessary to bridge the distance between patients and specialized expertise.

How Can AvaSure Help?

AvaSure’s partnership with Equum Medical, a telehealth-enabled clinical workforce organization, will provide rural hospitals with easy access to virtual specialty consults. The company’s broad portfolio of services addresses the driving challenges of Access and Capacity for health systems, including multi-specialty telemedicine, critical care, virtual nursing, virtual sitter monitoring, and telemetry. Solutions include:  

  • Inpatient tele-specialty consults (e.g., neurology/stroke, psychiatry, cardiology, nephrology, infectious disease, pulmonology, and more) 
  • Tele-ICU and critical care support, including surge capacity and after-hours coverage 
  • Virtual hospitalist support for nights, weekends, and hard-to-staff locations 
  • Care coordination that helps reduce avoidable transfers, keep patients local, and support patient flow with integrated virtual nursing capabilities across care venues 

These solutions strengthen financial sustainability while offering scalable, broadband-friendly technology specifically designed for the unique constraints of rural settings. Unlike typical telehealth partnerships that add separate point solutions, the integrated model runs on a single platform that many hospitals already use for virtual nursing and patient observation, paired with Equum’s physician and clinical programs. 

Your RHTP Virtual Care Strategy 

AvaSure equips rural hospitals with innovative virtual care and AI-powered solutions that expand local access, enhance care quality, and strengthen financial sustainability. By reducing adverse events like patient falls, easing workforce burdens, and fostering collaborative models of care, AvaSure helps rural providers meet and exceed the goals of the Rural Hospital Transformation Program.

Schedule a strategy consultation with AvaSure to explore how RHTP funding can support your virtual care roadmap. 

Case Study: Using Virtual Care to Prevent Workplace Violence 

Posted on February 18, 2026 by - Uncategorized

How Providence St. Peter Hospital and Providence Oregon Improved Caregiver Safety Through Remote Visual Monitoring 

Overview

Workplace violence has become a critical challenge across health systems, affecting caregiver morale, patient safety, and the overall care environment. Providence St. Peter Hospital in Washington and the Providence Oregon region implemented a virtual care monitoring program using AvaSure technology to proactively reduce violent incidents and protect staff and patients. Their experiences demonstrate how virtual engagement, predictive monitoring, and strong interdepartmental collaboration can dramatically improve safety outcomes. [Eyes on Sa…Transcript | Word] 

Challenge

Both regions were seeing increases in: 

  • Physical and verbal aggression toward nurses and CNAs 
  • Visitors introducing illicit substances or behaving violently 
  • Patients harming themselves or attempting to harm caregivers 
  • False allegations against staff, creating legal and safety risks 

Traditional approaches—such as staff rounding and signage—offered awareness but not reliable prevention. Violent events were still leading to caregiver injuries and unsafe environments. [Eyes on Sa…Transcript | Word] 

Solution: Remote Visual Monitoring (RVM) with AvaSure 

Providence St. Peter Hospital (Washington) 

  • Virtual safety attendants observe highrisk patients, including those with histories of violence or suicidal ideation. 

Providence Oregon RVM Hub 

  • Staffed by five virtual safety attendants and a lead per shift. 

Key Results

Providence St. Peter Hospital 

  • Staff report higher trust, communication, and perception of safety. 

Providence Oregon 

  • Multiple critical “saves,” including:  
  • Protecting staff during a bathroom attack, when techs saw nurses running out of the room and immediately called security. [Eyes on Sa…Transcript | Word] 

These cases highlight how remote monitoring enables fast intervention, even when staff cannot directly see risk evolving. 

Culture & Governance Enhancements 

Both regions emphasized: 

  • Regular communication via huddles, newsletters, SharePoint, and site visits to build trust between bedside staff and monitoring techs. [Eyes on Sa…Transcript | Word] 

Lessons Learned

  • Empower virtual safety attendants: instruct them to call security even if bedside staff says, “We’re okay.” Better to over-respond than underrespond. [Eyes on Sa…Transcript | Word] 

Conclusion

Providence St. Peter Hospital and Providence Oregon successfully transformed their approach to workplace violence by integrating virtual care monitoring into daily operations. Their experiences show that proactive surveillance, empowered staff, and clear escalation pathways can significantly reduce risk and create safer environments for caregivers and patients alike. 

This case study demonstrates how modern virtual care infrastructure—used thoughtfully—serves as both a protective shield and a tool for continuous care improvement. 

How to Scale Virtual Nursing Beyond Pilots

Posted on February 4, 2026 by - Featured

Industry experts and healthcare leaders agree that virtual nursing is essential for the future of acute care. However, while 74% of hospital leaders believe virtual nursing will become integral to inpatient delivery, only 10% have fully standardized these programs within their operations. 

To help organizations move beyond the cycle of perpetual pilots, this whitepaper provides a strategic roadmap for scaling virtual care across the enterprise. Drawing on the successful journey of Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH), we explore how to overcome critical barriers in organizational alignment, staffing, and funding. 

Download the whitepaper to uncover: 

  • Actionable lessons for cross-functional alignment, including how to establish specialized project teams for technology, clinical workflows, education, and more. 
  • Real-world clinical and financial impact, such as HMH’s 11.6% reduction in length of stay and 65% reduction in RN traveler hours. 
  • Data-driven staffing strategies that identify peak utilization windows and determine optimal nurse-to-patient ratios to ensure long-term sustainability. 
  • Funding and infrastructure blueprints for using labor savings from virtual sitting to offset virtual nursing investment costs. 

Once you have read the whitepaper, download our virtual nursing deployment checklist for a straightforward and actionable one-pager, and a readiness and ROI scorecard to help you determine which first use case is right for your program.

Follow the virtual nursing journey of HMH to see new results and updates on how they are using AvaSure’s virtual nursing platform!