Topic: Virtual Nursing

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.

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. 

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.

Contact AvaSure to discuss how you can use RHTP funding for virtual care.

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. 

      Ascom and AvaSure partner in AI-powered virtual nursing solutions for North America

      Posted on August 28, 2025 by - Featured, Uncategorized

      AvaSure + Ascom partnership image

      Ascom, a leading provider of clinical workflow and mobile communication solutions, and AvaSure, a leader in AI-powered virtual care, have signed a multi-year Interoperability Partner Agreement to integrate AvaSure’s Virtual Care Platform with Ascom’s Healthcare Platform suite and Myco™ devices. This collaboration will enable hospitals to streamline communication, enhance care team coordination, and deliver safer, more efficient patient care.

      According to survey data, 74% of acute care hospital leaders indicate that virtual nursing plays a significant role in influencing key hospital metrics1. When considering metrics for the success of virtual care programs, several can be favorably impacted through integration with the Ascom Healthcare Platform.

      The AvaSure platform delivers AI-powered virtual care solutions, including virtual nursing, virtual observation, and virtual visits, that help hospitals reduce costs, improve patient outcomes, and increase care team efficiency. Its AI-augmented capabilities, such as ambient monitoring for falls, operational and patient safety monitoring, and a virtual care assistant, further enhance clinical workflows. Supported by experienced care experts and built to meet enterprise IT standards, AvaSure’s proven solutions are trusted by more than 1,100 hospitals with over 5,000 deployments worldwide.

      “Healthcare leaders are looking for integrated, intelligent solutions that improve care delivery without adding complexity,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure. “Our partnership with Ascom is a strategic step toward building a more connected care environment where virtual care, communication, and clinical workflows seamlessly support frontline staff and elevate patient outcomes.”

      “Integration between AvaSure’s and Ascom’s healthcare platforms allows near real-time virtual monitoring alerts from AvaSure to be routed through Ascom’s clinical workflow engine and sent to the appropriate caregiver(s) with contextual relevance and actionable data,” said Tobias Stanelle, Managing Director, Ascom Americas. “This interoperability facilitates care collaboration between virtual and in-person clinical staff, which leads to better informed decision making, improved response times, staff satisfaction, and patient outcomes.”

      The partnership allows both companies to address the increasing demand in healthcare for integrated, vendor-neutral systems that connect clinical communication and monitoring technologies. The Ascom-AvaSure integration is available to mutual customers and can be implemented as part of broader alarm management or virtual care initiatives.

      Find more information on the partnership:

      1AvaSure Insight Survey. Accessed Aug. 7, 2025. https://avasure.com/resource/2024-virtual-care-insight-survey-report/ 

      Breaking Free! Scaling Virtual Nursing Beyond Pilots

      Posted on July 1, 2025 by - Featured, Uncategorized

      Nurse doing virtual nurse call on laptop

      Industry experts, healthcare leaders & the market have all agreed – virtual nursing is here to stay. In a 2024 study, 74% of hospital leaders reported that virtual nursing will become integral to care delivery models in acute inpatient care —up from 66% in 20231. However, only 10% of hospital leaders have reached a phase where virtual care is a standard part of care delivery, and nearly 30% of hospitals have no virtual care workflows at all1. 

      Why the gap? 

      Pilot or partial deployments of virtual nursing are where most institutions are getting stuck! 

      How can we break through perpetual pilots and scale virtual nursing to be a standard part of care delivery? 

      Let’s ask the experts. 

      AvaSure, a leading provider of Intelligent Virtual Care Platforms, consulted with two leading healthcare institutions that have successfully moved beyond the pilot phase and fully integrated virtual nursing into their daily patient care. Together, they explored how these organizations made the transition and shared valuable insights and advice for other institutions just beginning their virtual nursing journey.

      UCHealth logo

      UCHealth, a nationally recognized healthcare system with $7.5 billion in operating revenue and over 33,000 employees, operates 14 Colorado hospitals, providing more than 2,500 inpatient beds, and over 200 clinics across Colorado, southern Wyoming, and western Nebraska. Their 2016 Virtual Health Center significantly enhances patient care through virtual deterioration monitoring, TeleICU, centralized telemetry, virtual admission & discharge support, virtual sitting, virtual consults & more. This Virtual Health Center has touched over 2.3 million patient lives, achieving remarkable outcomes like reducing code blue rates by up to 40%, increasing rapid response rates and improving patient safety through virtual sitting, yielding nearly $9 million in 1:1 sitter cost savings.  To support these expanded use-cases and future-proof the patient room for a hybrid patient care model, UCHealth implemented a ‘camera-in-every-room’ philosophy.

      Amy Hassell, MSN, BSN, RN, CNO of Virtual Health Center, UCHealth

      Tamera Dunseth Rosenbaum, DNP, RN, NE-BC, System CNO of UCHealth

      As New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive not-for-profit healthcare network, Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) delivers a full spectrum of medical services, innovative research, and life-enhancing care through its 18 hospitals, 36,000+ team members, 7,000 physicians, and 500+ patient care sites.  HMH kicked off their virtual nursing journey in 2022 with the goal of improving outcomes and patient/provider satisfaction. With a virtual nursing pilot focused on virtual admission & discharge support, they successfully removed time-consuming task-based work from bedside teams. Following a year of successful implementation, the results prompted hospital leadership to expand the program across four hospitals. 

      • 11.6% reduction in length of stay 
      • 65% reduction in RN traveler hours and 26% reduction in RN overtime hours
      • 0.68% reduction in readmission rates

      Marie Foley-Danecker, DNP, RN, CCRN, NE-BE, Vice President & Chief Nursing Office of Hackensack Meridian Health

      Pilot sticking point: Lack of organizational alignment on program goal requires vision & change management

      Lesson One: It requires both leadership support and buy-in from frontline staff to be successful.

      The true blending of virtual and in-person clinical workflows is a technology investment, a change in nursing practice and a change in patient care – so “don’t underestimate the amount of cross-functional alignment it takes to get to one platform, one operating strategy across the network – it takes a village,” said Marie Foley-Danecker. HMH has 5 distinct project teams that stood up to help scale their pilot across the system: 

      • Tech Build Team (Both Network and Site Level) – make decisions around hardware, software, server, infrastructure, hosting and more – ensuring the system has not just the right technology, but the support infrastructure needed to support ongoing virtual care.
      • Clinical Workflow Team – help to ensure that bedside workflows are standardized and the virtual workflows fit seamlessly into them.  If you don’t start with standard work at the bedside, it will be nearly impossible to add a virtual care workflow.
      • Nursing Operations Team – help manage staffing, define roles & responsibilities between team members and drive collaboration 
      • Education Team – ensure the internal education of facility teams, as well as patients & family members so that they understand the role of the virtual care team members in their visit
      • Communications Team – tackle marketing and promotion of the program externally, helping to improve the hospital’s reputation as a cutting-edge, patient-experience oriented site of care. Robust virtual care programs can also act as great recruitment tools for future nurses who want to work at systems investing in the latest technology. 

      Lesson Two: Prepare for and be willing to adapt quickly.

      “Be nimble and understand that you might not get it right, right out of the gate. That’s why having a governance structure (like the teams at HMH or a steering committee approach at UCHealth) that can be quick to identify issues and change processes is really important” said Tamera Dunseth Rosenbaum. It’s essential to remember the primary reason why you’re doing this – to provide support to your bedside teams. So, listen to them! Be sure to take in their ideas of what may help and lean into those ideas. Example: HMH, at the suggestion of front-line teams and following suit of many facilities, chose to start with admission & discharge as their first virtual nursing use case. Bedside team members see a lot of value in the ability to offload task-based, administrative work to virtual teams in order to give them more time for hands-on patient care. Furthermore, virtual care team members who are focused specifically on admission & discharge – or other task-based nursing work – can be hyper focused, resulting in spending more time connecting with the patient and often seeing better results. A true win/win! Similarly, UCHealth chose to utilize the virtual nurse answer and triage call lights as a part of their first use case. However, it quickly became apparent that this was adding burden to the bedside with unnecessary steps and communication overload.  They took note, quickly changed course, and have since seen greater success. This willingness to adapt & change will be critical to the success of any virtual care program – and to winning the support of your team. 

      Lesson Three: Build grassroots support.

      The bedside team is critical for program success, so giving them a voice is essential. If you don’t know where to start, listen to your front-line nurses – and think about what would make their lives easier. Selecting a first use case that directly benefits them will help with long-term program success. As you get to more complex use cases, like TeleICU, virtual deterioration monitoring, TeleStroke and more, trust between virtual and bedside teams will be vital. You can build this trust through making front-line nurses feel a part of the implementation, ideation, and ongoing governance of the virtual nursing program.

      Pilot sticking point: staffing the program

      Many facilities are already struggling with the chronic staffing shortage, so how do you find the staff for a virtual nursing program? There are two main paths – utilize your existing talent pool to fill virtual roles or work with a staffing partner who can help provide the adequate staff for your program. Let’s discuss each model & the pros/cons of each. 

      Utilizing your existing talent pool 

      Tips & things to consider: 

      • Keep job descriptions consistent between on-site and virtual: This allows for flexibility for floating or job sharing between bedside and virtual roles, without creating unnecessary HR hurdles. Also, offering a virtual shift can be a nice benefit to bedside team members – facilities use this to reward seniority, help prevent burnout and improve staff satisfaction. 
      • Think outside your geography: The nursing shortage is more acute in certain regions. For example, HMH, located in New Jersey, knew that finding nurses in this expensive, metropolitan area would potentially prevent getting their program off the ground. In this instance, working with a partner based out of Tennessee with a richer talent pool, like Equum Medical, made sense for avoiding staffing restraints that would prevent them from getting their program started.
      • Evaluate the experience level of your current staff: If your facility is predominantly novice nurses, you’ll need your most experienced nurses at the bedside to make virtual care a success. Pulling these nurses into virtual roles could potentially increase travel nurse/overtime use, offsetting potential program ROI. In these cases, outsourcing with a staffing partner may be a better fit for your institution. 

      Working with a virtual staffing provider

      Tips & things to consider:

      • Speed to go-live: Outsourcing to a trusted provider of virtual nurse staffing may allow you to get started quicker, as they have teams ready to deploy immediately. You can always consider moving things in-house overtime once your program is scaled.
      • Add more use cases with supplemental staffing: Staffing doesn’t need to be all in-house or all partners! You can take a use case driven approach and use a staffing partner to fill gaps in your team’s experience. Outsource staffing for more complex use cases, like virtual patient deterioration or TeleICU.

      Important insight: Marie Foley-Danecker said, “trust is earned—whether you choose to use a partner or have your own staff on the virtual team, the beside team will take time to trust them. Don’t assume that trust will be built immediately just because you use your own staff, or assume trust can’t be built if you outsource.”

      Pilot sticking point: funding the program

      One of the most talked about reasons for the lack of virtual nursing adoption is the funding. Like many things, leaders struggle to build the business case to pay for it. Some have a misconception that only affluent health systems, or those with a highly favorable payor mix, can afford it. However, HMH and UCHealth both have a challenging payor mix across their system and had to work hard to validate the business case to leadership. Some of their lessons learned include: 

      Allocating virtual nurse resources to each department. 

      UCHealth accomplishes this by allocating a small unit of service bump to each department that utilizes the virtual resource. At the care unit level, it can be as small as 0.1 – 0.2 hours per patient day, but UCHealth recommends this path for a few reasons:

      • Encourages use of the virtual team – if the department is “paying for it anyways”, they’re more likely to utilize the virtual team, helping to improve program utilization.
      • Helps to spread the cost and avoid constant justification to hospital leadership – When the entire virtual care program is consolidated under a single budget, it becomes a frequent target for scrutiny during budget reviews. Spreading the allocation makes it less likely to face ongoing questioning or review.
        • Tip: Be sure to have the virtual resource as a separate line item on each nurse manager’s budget to remind them that this is the FTE for the virtual team support. Otherwise, they may hire up to that amount, and the program will be over budget. 
      • Hits budgetary targets – With turnover and vacancy rates most departments can still hit their budgetary targets with this allocation.

      Labor savings from virtual sitting can help fund investment in devices for other use cases – like virtual nursing.  

      Both UCHealth and HMH began their inpatient virtual care programs with virtual sitting. The program was focused on reducing labor costs associated with 1:1 sitters and preventing patient falls. Virtual sitting is a mainstream nursing intervention proven to help facilities replace an average of 70% of 1:1 sitters while reducing falls rates by up to 60%. UCHealth has saved $9M in labor costs with virtual sitting achieving up to 6x ROI. Facilities can utilize these labor savings to help fund the investment in a virtual care device for every patient room. 

      Pilot sticking point: sufficient infrastructure & technology

      Medical quality audio and video devices are fundamental to enable virtual care workflows. Many pilots rely on mobile carts or tablets as a small proof of concept. However, this makes it challenging to scale as it creates additional workflow challenges that impact program success. Because of this, both UCHealth and HMH now standardize patient rooms with a device included and would recommend the same to anyone considering full-scale virtual nursing. This doesn’t mean you always need to add an additional vendor to your portfolio, as this can be a pain point for IT leaders constantly tasked with vendor consolidation.

      Their recommendation: Consider your current technology stack. 

      You may currently have a vendor in your hospital – like your EHR or virtual sitting provider – that can scale into virtual nursing. This can help to get more ROI out of an investment you’re already making. However, be sure they’re equipped to support you. When selecting a virtual nursing technology vendor, consider the following points: 

      • Platform ease of use: Be sure to select a vendor with a platform that supports multiple clinical use cases and is easy for nurses to use.
      • Support: There is a lot of clinical change & workflow management that comes with implementing a change to the care model, so select a vendor with expertise who will partner with your clinical teams throughout this process. IT teams also have a lot on their plates and shouldn’t be overburdened with implementing a new platform. Consider a vendor who provides robust technical and project management 24/7 support– not just at the time of deployment, but throughout the partnership.
      • Demonstrated outcomes: When technology advances, new vendors flood the market. In the clinical space, it’s more important than ever to select a partner with demonstrated experience in delivering outcomes for our patients.

      Benefits of a fully integrated virtual nursing program

      The promise of virtual care is to create a more sustainable, patient-centered healthcare system that leverages technology to deliver high-quality care anytime, anywhere with greater precision and efficiency. With virtual care workflows as a standard part of care delivery, facilities can meet the evolving needs of both patients & healthcare providers by expanding access to care, improving patient experience, reducing caregiver workload, and increasing the efficiency and scalability of staffing. The path to virtual care maturity requires more than just investing in new technology – it also requires organizational alignment, tight change management processes, and buy-in at all levels of the organization. Adopting an intelligent platform that seamlessly blends remote and in-person care with AI-powered virtual nursing is a critical step towards accelerating virtual care maturity.

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

      Learn more about the AvaSure Platform’s ability to support your virtual nursing growth.

      Resources

      1 Joslin Insight Virtual Care Insight Study October 2024

      7-Steps to Deploying Virtual Care and Virtual Nursing Platforms  

      Posted on June 2, 2025 by - Featured

      virtual nurse illustration

      The healthcare landscape in the U.S. is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by challenges such as nursing shortages, increasing patient complexity, and cost constraints. As a result, nurses are feeling stretched thin, with many considering leaving the bedside — highlighting the urgent need for innovative solutions. Virtual care platforms are emerging as a powerful strategy to address these challenges, optimize care delivery, and enhance both patient outcomes and staff satisfaction. 

      Hospitals are actively seeking ways to alleviate the burden on bedside staff and improve overall efficiency. 74% of hospital leaders believe virtual workflows will become integral to care delivery models in acute inpatient care, but only 10% of leaders have reached a phase where virtual care is a standard part of care delivery. This indicates a knowledge gap in how to start and scale virtual care programs.  

      Based on AvaSure’s experience helping over 1,100 hospitals across the U.S. with their virtual sitting and virtual nursing programs, we’ve put together a 7-step roadmap to help you successfully launch your own virtual care program. 

      1.  Identify your facility’s unique pain points 

      It’s important to identify your biggest challenges within your organization. What’s unique about your facility and where should you focus your efforts? 

      To help identify your top pain points, gather a group of cross-functional stakeholders, including bedside staff. Ask them to provide feedback on what they are struggling with on a day-to-day basis. 

      Expect to hear things like: 

      1. Recruitment and retention of all levels of staff – from nursing assistants to nurses to highly specialized physicians. 
      2. Patient capacity challenges & bottlenecks 
      3. Loss of joy and fulfillment leading to burnout for all types of caregivers 
      4. Patients’ desire for an integrated experience, bringing consumer expectations to healthcare  
      5. Rise in patient complexity 
      6. Quality metric declines across key areas 

      Once you’ve cataloged your challenges, you can get to prioritizing. 

      2.  Prioritize the challenges with the greatest impact 

      Once you understand the challenges across your facility, identify which is creating the biggest drain on the system. There are a number of use cases for virtual nursing platforms — each with its own potential impact.  

      Some of the most prevalent use cases & outcomes they’ve been proven to impact include: 

      Use Case Potential Outcomes 
      Virtual Specialty Consults • Shorten response time for specialty consults  
      • Decrease time to diagnosis and treatment  
      • Improve ED-to-admission time  
      • Retain higher-acuity patients in-network  
      • Reduce unnecessary transfers  
      • Decrease locum costs  
      • Cut down windshield time for specialists 
      TeleStroke • Decrease unnecessary transfers  
      • Decrease stroke treatment response time  
      • Reduce unnecessary transfers  
      • Shorten stroke patients’ length of stay 
      Virtual ICU • Improve evidence-based care compliance  
      • Ensure 24/7 intensivist coverage  
      • Prevent CLABSI, self-extubations  
      • Reduce sepsis mortality  
      • Lower malpractice expenses 
      Patient Observation/Virtual Sitting • Reduce rate of falls and falls with injury  
      • Reduce reliance on 1:1 sitters  
      • Reduce labor costs  
      • Prevent self-harm during behavioral health monitoring
      • Improve patient and staff satisfaction ratings  
      • Reduce elopements  
      • Reduce incidents of harm to caregivers 
      Virtual Nursing • Decrease bedside RN documentation time  
      • Improve RN retention  
      • Improve timeliness of admission and discharge from time of order  
      • Reduce number of patients, and time spent, holding in the ED  
      • Improved throughput and reduced overall LOS  
      • Improved patient experience scores on HCAHPS including: Responsiveness, Nurse courtesy, Discharge information clarity 
      Nurse Mentorship • Improve RN retention rates, especially new grad retention rates  
      • Improve staff satisfaction  
      • Improve speed to clinical readiness of new nurses  
      • Improve preceptor-to-orientee ratio  
      • Improve eNPS score  
      • Reduce travel/agency spend  
      • Improve response time for questions/escalations 
      Patient Education • Improved patient experience scores on HCAHPS including: Responsiveness, Nurse courtesy, Discharge information clarity 
      High-Acuity Patient Monitoring • Decrease 30-day readmission rates  
      • Reduce adverse events and hospital acquired conditions such as: CLABSI, CAUTI, HAPI, falls, adverse drug events 
      • Improve sepsis bundle compliance  
      • Decrease code blues  
      • Prevent unnecessary ICU transfers 
      Pediatric Patient Monitoring • Reduce cost of monitoring eating disorder patients  
      • Improve staff safety, preventing violence against caregivers  
      • Reduce incidents of self-harm during behavioral health monitoring  
      • Prevent non-accidental trauma 
      Hospital Operations • Reduce RN turnover rates  
      • Improve labor cost per unit of service  
      • Improve room turnover times  
      • Improved patient experience 

      After identifying your facility’s unique pain points and prioritizing the most impactful ones to address, the ideal starting use case will become clearer. We recommend starting with one or two use cases: one use case that has a tangible financial ROI and one that has a positive impact on staff. This helps get staff on board and allows you to build a strong business case for leadership with clear, manageable goals. Once you’ve established a solid foundation, you can add more overtime.  

      3.  Build your business case 

      Building a strong business case is essential for ensuring a virtual nursing program’s long-term success. At this stage, collaboration between clinical, financial and IT leadership is crucial to demonstrate how the IT infrastructure can support clinical needs—both now and into the future.  

      Once you’ve identified the virtual nursing platform use case with the most potential impact for your facility, begin to identify goals and benchmarks for your program.  

      Business Case Highlight: One health system was struggling with high rates of ED boarding in their community.  A recent study published in Academics Emergency Medicine demonstrated that it costs $863 more per day to care for a patient in the ED than on a med/surg unit. Based on this alone, this facility was able to establish that decreasing their ED boarding by less than 5%, or 1.2-1.4 borders per day, would offset the costs of installing technology and staffing a virtual nursing program to expediate discharges.1

      Best practice from AvaSure’s clinical team:  Be sure to include feedback from frontline staff and managers throughout the process—their buy-in is essential for long-term success. It’s important that care teams understand this program is designed to support them, not add extra work or replace jobs.  

      4.  Select a vendor partner 

      The final step in building your business case is selecting a virtual care partner who can help you achieve your long-term goals. Select a partner with both clinical and technical expertise—one who can not only meet your current needs but also help grow your program over time.  

      When evaluating vendors, be sure to consider: 

      1. Platform ease of use & open architecture 
        Select a vendor with a virtual nursing platform that supports multiple clinical use cases and is easy for nurses to use. 
        No single vendor will be an expert in every use case, so it’s important to select a partner with an open ecosystem. This flexibility allows you to utilize specialty solutions—such as ambient documentation—when their expertise prevails. 
      1. Support 
        Implementing a new care model involves significant clinical change and workflow management, so it’s essential to choose a vendor with the expertise to actively partner with your clinical teams throughout the process. IT teams also have a lot on their plates and shouldn’t be overburdened with implementing a new platform. Consider a vendor who provides robust technical and project management with 24/7 support—not just at the time of deployment, but throughout the partnership. 
      1. Demonstrated outcomes 
        In any emerging area, many new solutions will become available with little real-world experience. In the clinical space, it’s more important than ever to select a partner with demonstrated experience in delivering outcomes for patients. 
      1. Current technology 
        Vendor consolidation is key for maximizing the impact of current spend and reducing technology duplicity. Before bringing on a new vendor, evaluate whether current solutions—such as your TeleSitter® solution—also offer a virtual nursing platform before investing in additional technology. 

      5.  Roll out your first use case 

      Now that you’ve identified the challenges, started formulating a business case with IT and secured leadership support, it’s time to start building your program. You can start with a single unit or department if preferred. 

      Starting small is a smart approach, as it allows you to demonstrate early success. Consider launching during peak hours, such as 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., to ease staff into the program and ensure the virtual team is properly staffed. However, stay flexible—real-time feedback might show that this isn’t the most impactful area to address first. Be ready to adapt quickly. Achieving quick wins is crucial for securing buy-in from frontline staff and maintaining leadership support, so an agile approach will be key. 

      When deciding what unit to start on, think about the following: 

      • Highest churn unit for admission & discharges – may be a high need for offload of documentation
      • Unit with highest amount of novice nursing staff – may benefit from virtual nursing & mentorship 
      • Unit with highest percentage of travel nurses – help to reduce agency spend and fuel a program ROI 
      • Virtual nursing for specialists that are low staffed – support nutritionists, diabetic management, wound care, social workers/case managers & more 
      • Units with residents using a virtual nurse – Assist with morning rounds and facilitate documentation to communicate with family 
      • High complexity patient unit – allows virtual nurse to do purposeful rounding and be a second set of eyes on patients 
      • Units with deterioration or sepsis protocols and/or wearable monitoring – helps reduce false alarms and identify early signs of adverse events 

      Make sure to establish a feedback loop to hear directly from frontline staff about how the program is progressing and create a system to share successes both across the facility and with leadership. This positive word of mouth will be key to gaining broader support for the program.  

      6.  Share results with stakeholders and spread the word 

      After a few weeks or months, ensure you hold a forum with leadership and the cross functional teams involved to update them on your progress. Show how the pilot has driven change against your key goals or metrics. AvaSure’s clinical team will help you pull your data and showcase your progress. 

      Tip from AvaSure’s Customer Success Team: It’s important to have a baseline before starting so you can demonstrate progress. Be sure to log all relevant metrics, including financials, before implementation. It’s also great to include great catches and stories from the front line leaders. Metric progress is great, but it’s the stories that will win the hearts of your teams. 

      7.  Scale up your program – you’re really doing it! 

      Now that you’ve demonstrated success (and it was easy!), consider expanding to additional units or use cases. However, be reasonable about what your team can handle at once. Take a slow and deliberate approach, ensuring that your teams have a venue to speak up if it gets overwhelming. 

      Advice from the AvaSure team: If you’re going to fail, be ready to fail fast. Not every use case will be suitable for every facility. Sometimes, you may identify a need, but virtual care may not be the best solution. Ensure leadership is open to abandoning an idea if it’s adding more burden to teams instead of alleviating it. Your team will appreciate that you prioritize their work experience over forcing something that isn’t a good fit.   

      Worried about staffing your program as it grows? Learn about hosted options if you are lacking adequate talent to pull from your area. 

      A successful virtual care deployment can help address labor challenges by optimizing staff productivity, while also driving staff satisfaction and retention. Care teams will feel more supported, spend more time at the bedside, and leave each day feeling accomplished.  AvaSure is here to support you through every step of scoping, implementing, and scaling a virtual care and virtual nursing program. With 15% of our staff being RNs, we understand the unique challenges facing care systems today. Our robust clinical team is ready to help with business case development through implementation, metric tracking, and expansion. 

      1 Canellas, M.M., et al (2024) Measurement of cost of boarding in the emergency department using time-driven activity-based costing. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 84(4);376-385

      Virtual nursing at Hackensack Meridian Health is making nurses and patients happy

      Posted on May 19, 2025 by - Featured, Uncategorized

      Regina Foley-HealthcareITNews article

      In-hospital nurses can focus on more critical tasks and direct patient care while virtual nurses handle the routine monitoring and documentation tasks. Patients appreciate more personalized support and the overall hospital experience.

      Hackensack Meridian Health has made a conscious effort to identify ways to streamline administrative tasks for its bedside teams, minimizing non-clinical burdens for frontline staff. That’s why the New Jersey health system decided to enhance its nursing staff with a virtual nursing program.

      The work of virtual nursing staff decreases the documentation currently completed by bedside nurses and allows for increased direct care interaction. Through virtual nursing, the health system can expand care delivery while ensuring nurses are empowered, supported and able to focus on what matters most – patient care.

      Early results show virtual nursing supports faster discharging procedures, coordinated care planning and optimization of in-unit nursing time through the shifting of the documentation burden.

      A partner in care

      Virtual nursing provides the on-site team with a partner in care, integrating remote, real-time nursing support into existing care teams, said Regina Foley, RN, executive vice president, interim president central region, chief nurse executive, and chief transformation and integration officer at Hackensack Meridian Health.

      “The virtual nursing program proposed a model where virtual nurses could assist on-site clinical teams by performing non-clinical tasks and providing additional resources for patient monitoring and discharge support,” she continued. “By sharing these responsibilities with virtual nurses, our bedside nurses can focus more on high-acuity care, thereby reducing their administrative workload and increasing satisfaction.

      “Pre-implementation, we worked with telemedicine company Equum Medical and AvaSure to design a program that could scale across different units and integrate seamlessly with our existing hospital systems,” she added. “We envisioned this as a way to improve the overall efficiency of our clinical staff.”

      With virtual nurses working remotely, clinical teams could continue to receive timely assistance, access educational resources and streamline communication, all of which are critical in meeting the growing needs of the patient population.

      Driving virtual nursing at scale

      Virtual nursing at Hackensack Meridian Health is different because out of the gate the health system committed at the executive level to drive virtual nursing at scale.

      “The program will be further implemented across several clinical units in support of expedited patient progression and capacity management,” Foley explained. “Virtual nurses will be integrated with the local care teams and can assist with tasks such as monitoring patient vital signs and discharge planning.

      “These tasks will be supported through real-time video consultations and, in the future, AI-driven decision support tools, which can help ensure accurate and efficient communication between virtual nurses and bedside staff,” she continued.

      The virtual nurses are highly trained registered nurses who work remotely and are directly integrated into the hospitals’ clinical workflow through systems like the electronic health record and patient monitoring platforms.

      Change management is key

      “The clinical workflow design aspect integral to the Equum Medical model of implementation focuses on change management, and the key steps to ensure we are able to successfully launch and sustain the program,” Foley noted. “The integration with AvaSure’s technology-enabled virtual nurses to assist in decision making and predictive analytics will also support our bedside teams.

      “Our future goal is to see metrics associated with increased team member retention and reduced vacancy rates,” she continued. “While early on in our journey, nurses have expressed they are able to focus on more critical tasks and direct patient care, while virtual nurses handle the routine monitoring and documentation tasks.”

      At full implementation, the health system hopes to see a reduction in patient discharge times and increased patient throughput across units with virtual nursing. And in the future it hopes to measure patient experience scores. Early evidence suggests patients are appreciating the more personalized support they receive and their overall hospital experience.

      For organizations considering virtual nursing, Foley advises starting with a clear understanding of goals and how this technology can align with existing infrastructure.

      Making a careful choice for technology

      “Your technology choice also needs to be designed for the future and integrates well with your current clinical systems, such as your EHR and patient monitoring tools, so virtual nurses can work seamlessly with your on-site teams,” she said. “Equally crucial is providing education for the virtual nurses to become aligned with the culture of your organization, as well as training and ongoing support for the bedside team, so they are equipped to work together effectively.

      “Another piece of advice is to focus on change management – introducing virtual nursing technology will impact workflows, and it’s important to have a plan in place to address any concerns,” she continued. “Engage your clinical teams early in the process, keep lines of communication open, and be prepared to adopt lessons learned from your implementation. The key to success lies in ensuring that virtual nursing is seen not as a replacement but as an enhancement to existing care models.”

      Follow Bill’s HIT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
      Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
      Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

      See the article posted on HealthcareITNews

      Hackensack Meridian Health, Equum Medical, and AvaSure Partner to Launch Virtual Nursing Program to Increase Convenient, Accessible Care for Patients

      Posted on April 8, 2025 by - Featured, Uncategorized

      Hackensack Meridian, AvaSure, and Equum partnership

      Enhancing Patient Care and Supporting Nurses: A New Virtual Nursing Program to Improve Healthcare Delivery

      NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / April 8, 2025 / Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive health network, has partnered with Equum Medical, a leader in enterprise virtual care-enabled clinical services solutions, and AvaSure, a pioneering innovator in patient safety technology, to launch a groundbreaking Virtual Nursing Program. The program will enhance nursing care delivery by integrating cutting-edge technology with compassionate, high-quality care to enhance patient care, support nursing teams, and optimize health care by seamlessly integrating virtual nurses into the patient care environment across Hackensack Meridian Health‘s expansive network.

      Addressing Healthcare’s Most Pressing Challenges
      By integrating Equum Medical’s virtual nursing services, this initiative will provide real time clinical support and streamline workflows. Virtual nurses will assist with critical tasks such as admission support, mentoring and discharge support, allowing on-site clinicians to focus on high-acuity patient care.

      “This partnership marks a pivotal moment in our organization’s journey to transform health care through innovative, patient-centered technologies,” said Hackensack Meridian Health Chief Executive Officer Robert C. Garrett, FACHE. “Virtual nursing is an opportunity to expand our care teams’ impact and provide an elevated care experience for our patients.”

      Regina Foley, Ph.D., MBA, RN, Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing Executive and Chief Clinical Transformation and Integration Officer of Hackensack Meridian Health, said, “At Hackensack Meridian Health, we have always prioritized high-quality, compassionate care. By partnering with Equum Medical and AvaSure, we are enhancing support for our clinical teams and ensuring that patient care is more focused.”

      As a nurse who started at the bedside and progressed to hospital leadership, Kristen Lawton, MSN, Chief Nursing Officer of Equum Medical, recognizes the transformation in nursing care that’s possible: “This program integrates the best of technology with the heart of nursing-human connection. Through virtual nursing, we can expand care delivery while ensuring nurses are empowered, supported, and able to focus on what matters most: patient care. We are proud to work alongside Hackensack Meridian Health and AvaSure to create a scalable, sustainable model for the future of nursing that blends technology with compassionate care, empowering nurses and extending our reach to better support patients and improve care delivery. It’s a key milestone in advancing virtual care.”

      Equum Medical: Pioneering Virtual Nursing Solutions
      Equum Medical is at the forefront of healthcare innovation through its Suite of Acute Care Services. Equum’s expanding portfolio anticipates hospital urgency to respond organizationally to access and capacity constraints through multi-specialty and critical care and hospitalist physician services as well as virtual nursing, tele-sitting, telemetry services, establishing the company as a leader in leveraging telehealth to enhance care delivery and optimize operational efficiencies.

      “As healthcare systems continue to face dynamic change, virtual care solutions have never been more crucial,” said Corey Scurlock, M.D., MBA, Founder and CEO of Equum Medical. “At Equum, we are skilled in leading change, and this partnership with Hackensack Meridian Health and AvaSure represents a landmark achievement. Together, we are providing a scalable model that supports clinical teams and enhances the quality of care across hospitals. This partnership highlights the trusted relationships we’ve developed with our customers and our ability to meet the evolving needs of the healthcare industry.”

      AvaSure’s Legacy in Patient Safety and Technology Integration
      AvaSure, a national leader in patient safety and technology solutions, is renowned for its contributions to enhancing care through innovative technology and AI-driven solutions. By integrating AI into the virtual nursing program, AvaSure will empower virtual nurses with real-time decision support and predictive analytics to optimize patient outcomes. This technology will enable virtual nurses to assist bedside teams more effectively, ensuring that patient care is both responsive and comprehensive.

      “AvaSure is thrilled to be part of this pioneering collaboration that merges our expertise in patient safety with cutting-edge technology,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure. “The integration of AI into virtual nursing represents a major leap forward in how we can support nursing teams by reducing workload burdens, improving the patient experience and meeting the demands of today’s healthcare environment. Through our work with Hackensack Meridian Health and Equum Medical, we are supporting and empowering care teams to deliver safer, more efficient, and patient-centered care.”

      The Future of Virtual Care
      This partnership sets a new standard for virtual nursing programs in health care, aiming to improve care team efficiency and address the rising demand for high-quality care. Through an in-depth and customized clinical design process, each side begins to develop relationships where the virtual nurse becomes an extension of the bedside team.

      As part of the program’s rollout, Hackensack Meridian Health will deploy the virtual nursing service across key units, including Med-Surg, with plans to expand enterprise-wide virtual care as the program scales.

      See the article on Access Newswire

      About Hackensack Meridian Health
      Hackensack Meridian Health is New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive health network, delivering the highest quality care across hospitals, outpatient services, and home health programs. With a commitment to advancing healthcare through innovative models, Hackensack Meridian Health is reshaping patient care delivery in New Jersey and beyond. For more information, visit https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/en/.

      About Equum Medical
      Equum Medical is a technology-enabled inpatient clinical services company recognized for its comprehensive acute care portfolio. Specializing in multi-specialty, tele-critical care, hospitalist, virtual nursing, tele-sitting, and telemetry services, Equum leverages advanced telehealth technologies to enhance clinical access and optimize healthcare delivery across hospitals in the United States. By addressing workforce challenges and improving operational efficiency, Equum Medical empowers healthcare systems to elevate patient care, optimize leadership, and achieve positive clinical, operational, and financial outcomes. For more information, visit www.equummedical.com.

      About AvaSure
      AvaSure® is an intelligent virtual care platform that healthcare providers use to engage with patients, optimize staffing, and seamlessly blend remote and in-person care at scale. The platform deploys AI-powered virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions, meets the highest enterprise IT standards, and drives measurable outcomes with support from care experts. AvaSure consistently delivers a 6x ROI and has been recognized by KLAS Research as the #1 solution for reducing the cost of care. With a team of 15% nurses, AvaSure is a trusted partner of 1,100+ hospitals with experience in over 5,000 deployments.

      Media Contact Information:
      Karsten Russell-Wood
      Chief Marketing & Experience Officer
      410-409-7376
      karsten.russell-wood@equummedical.com
      www.equummedical.com
      info@equummedical.com

      AvaSure Acquires Nurse Disrupted to Advance Clinically-Developed Virtual Nursing Across Care Settings

      Posted on March 31, 2025 by - Featured, Uncategorized

      Strengthening AvaSure’s commitment to clinical excellence with a nurse-founded virtual nursing company, expanding innovation across hospital and home-based care settings.

      BELMONT, Mich., March 31, 2025 –  AvaSure, the leader in AI-powered virtual care solutions, today announced the acquisition of Nurse Disrupted, a nurse-founded virtual nursing platform designed to enhance care delivery across both hospital and home-based settings. This strategic acquisition reinforces AvaSure’s commitment to clinically-driven innovation and marks the company’s second acquisition in nine months, following the purchase of Ouva’s Smart Room AI technology.

      “AvaSure is dedicated to delivering clinically led virtual care solutions that empower healthcare providers and improve patient outcomes,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure. “Bringing Nurse Disrupted into our portfolio aligns perfectly with our mission, allowing us to expand our support for hospitals and health systems with innovative, scalable virtual nursing capabilities.”

      Nurse Disrupted’s platform is designed for rapid deployment, enabling healthcare organizations to quickly implement virtual nursing solutions and achieve  measurable ROI through increased efficiency and cost savings in acute care environments. Bre Loughlin, MS, RN, Founder of Nurse Disrupted, will join AvaSure as the Executive Director of Virtual Care Innovation. Her leadership and deep expertise in virtual nursing will play a key role in advancing AvaSure’s mission to innovate for the next era of care—expanding virtual care capabilities, enhancing caregiver support, optimizing workflows, and improving patient safety.

      “The synergy between Nurse Disrupted and AvaSure is undeniable,” said Bre Loughlin, MS, RN, Founder of Nurse Disrupted. “Both platforms are built with caregivers in mind, ensuring that virtual nursing is not just a technology solution but a true extension of clinical care. Together, we can bring even more impactful solutions to hospitals.”

      As an innovation partner, Tufts Medical Center will collaborate with AvaSure to integrate Nurse Disrupted into AvaSure’s platform, ensuring a seamless, clinically driven solution.

      “AvaSure and Nurse Disrupted each bring deep expertise in virtual care, and together, they are creating a solution designed to leverage the impact of our care teams while keeping patients at the center,” said Therese Hudson-Jinks, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services at Tufts Medical Center. “We’re excited to work with them to integrate these innovations and deliver a more intuitive, efficient and impactful virtual nursing experience—one that truly supports frontline caregivers and enhances patient care.”

      With this acquisition, AvaSure continues to expand their capabilities from a trusted provider of virtual safety solutions to a partner supporting healthcare providers deployment of advanced, AI-powered virtual care solutions to meet the evolving demands of modern healthcare. 

      Interested in learning where virtual nursing is headed? Watch the on-demand webinar, The Next Evolution of Virtual Nursing: Bridging Technology and Practice, with Bre Loughlin, MS, RN, and Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, FAONL CAVRN.

      Interested in hearing virtual care industry news, educational webinars, and AvaSure updates? Sign up for the newsletter today!

      About AvaSure 
      AvaSure® is an intelligent virtual care platform that healthcare providers use to engage with patients, optimize staffing, and seamlessly blend remote and in-person care at scale. The platform deploys AI-powered virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions, meets the highest enterprise IT standards, and drives measurable outcomes with support from care experts. AvaSure consistently delivers a 6x ROI and has been recognized by KLAS Research as the #1 solution for reducing the cost of care. With a team of 15% nurses, AvaSure is a trusted partner of 1,100+ hospitals with experience in over 5,000 deployments.  

      About Nurse Disrupted 
      Nurse Disrupted is a nurse-founded, nurse-led, and women-owned technology company dedicated to transforming healthcare through innovative virtual nursing solutions. Backed by experts from major healthcare IT vendors and industry advisors, Nurse Disrupted develops technology that enhances patient care, streamlines nursing workflows, and expands access to care. Founded to fill a critical gap – software designed with nurses at the center – the company has facilitated over 42,000 virtual visits with 500+ satisfied nurse providers. To learn more, visit https://nursedisrupted.com/. 

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