During a featured session at the 8th Annual Becker’s Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Meeting,leaders from Aurora, Colo.-based UC Health discussed the system’s Virtual Health Center that uses technology to support patient care, improve efficiency and enhance patient outcomes.
The center includes a virtual ICU, tele-sitting, centralized telemetry, and virtual urgent care. The virtual health center also uses models powered by artificial intelligence to detect patient deterioration and sepsis earlier, leading to improved patient outcomes. The center has helped decrease code-blue events and improved sepsis identification. The center has also produced cost savings and improved patient safety. The center is supported by a team of virtual nurses who can monitor up to 500 patients at a time. The virtual hospital system has been successful due to top-down support, continuous iteration and a focus on solving real problems.
Seventh annual in-person event will feature ten-plus customers discussing virtual sitting and virtual nursing
Customers attending include St. Luke’s Duluth, Michigan Medicine, Beacon Health, Baptist Medical Center South, Madonna Rehabilitation, Ascension Texas, UCHealth, and Corewell Health
BELMONT, Mich., Oct. 4, 2023 — AvaSure, the market leader in acute virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions, announced today that the full agenda is now available for the 2023 AvaSure Symposium, an in-person event for healthcare and nurse leaders seeking an unparalleled opportunity to connect, learn, and engage around virtual care.
The in-person event, designed to elevate healthcare leadership journeys with innovative and educational programming on AI, virtual sitting and virtual nursing, will feature at least ten customer speakers. Organizations with executives speaking at the event include: St. Luke’s Duluth, Michigan Medicine, Beacon Health, Baptist Medical Center South, Madonna Rehabilitation, Ascension Texas, UCHealth, and Corewell Health.
This year’s AvaSure Symposium will be held October 25–26 at the GVSU Richard M. DeVos Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Attendees will gain insights from clinical experts and customer success stories, while rediscovering the power of face-to-face interactions through networking with esteemed healthcare and nurse leaders to exchange ideas and build relationships that extend beyond the confines of a screen.
The vibrant in-person event features numerous compelling educational sessions, including:
Saving Lives Virtually: How to Keep Suicide Risk Patients Safe: Join us for a critical discussion on safeguarding the well-being of low-to-medium-risk suicide patients and pediatric patients through virtual sitting. Beacon Health and Baptist South will share why this approach works, discuss the policies that support it, and the transformative impact it has had on their organization.
Celebrating Remarkable Results: A Customer’s Story of Reducing Falls: Nurse leaders from St. Luke’s Duluth will share their inspiring story behind the strategies, challenges, and triumphs of reducing patient falls and achieving recognition in patient safety.
A Single Virtual Care Platform Designed for Growth: How UCHealth Scaled Virtual Sitting to Virtual Nursing to Save Lives: Learn how UCHealth innovatively designed a virtual hospital, making an impact on 1.4 million lives through the combination of virtual sitting and virtual nursing programs.
Navigating Staffing Challenges: The Equum Medical-AvaSure Success Story: This session will explore how Madonna Rehabilitation faced staffing issues and partnered with Equum Medical to achieve remarkable results.
Fostering Excellence: Cross-Functional Teams in Virtual Care: Corewell Health’s Chief Information Officer will share firsthand insights into their collaborative journey, innovative strategies, and the pivotal role technology plays in shaping the future of healthcare.
Other reasons to attend include:
Dynamic learning, live: Immerse yourself in a live, dynamic learning environment. Renowned speakers, including customers and healthcare leaders, will share the latest insights and strategies, providing actionable takeaways for your leadership toolkit.
Hands-on workshops: Dive into interactive workshops led by AvaSure’s clinical staff experts and nursing leaders. Experience hands-on learning, acquire new skills, and gain practical insights to excel in your healthcare practice.
Array of insights, in-person: Break down hospital borders by engaging with healthcare leaders from across the country, all under one roof. Embrace diversity, broaden your perspective, and foster a global IT and nursing community.
“We are thrilled the AvaSure Symposium is returning to an in-person event in 2023 and can’t wait to reconnect with our wonderful nursing colleagues,” said Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, Chief Clinical Officer, AvaSure. “Healthcare and nurse leaders who attend the Symposium will have the opportunity to experience the power of in-person interaction and immerse themselves in a world of knowledge and inspiration while learning more about virtual care options to enhance patient care outcomes.”
About AvaSure
AvaSure provides the leading virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions to systems with nursing and staffing shortages that are challenged to significantly reduce labor costs without sacrificing patient health outcomes. Recognized by KLAS Research as the leader in reducing the cost of patient care, AvaSure is the pioneer in providing best-in-class, video-based AvaSure TeleSitter® and TeleNurse™ solutions. As a trusted partner of more than 1,100 hospitals, AvaSure combines virtual safety attendants, virtual nurses and other providers on a single platform to enhance clinical care without placing any additional burdens on existing staff. To learn more about AvaSure visit www.avasure.com.
Customers commend AvaSure’s proven ability to drive outcomes, ROI, scalability and value continued investments, such as AI
BELMONT, Mich., Sept. 21, 2023 —A new Segment Insights report from KLAS revealed that AvaSure customers have recognized the virtual care platform’s ability to improve staff and patient outcomes while driving better financial performance and significant return on investment.
The report, the first-ever by KLAS on virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions, is based on structured interviews of vendors’ customers. The report designated AvaSure as the top performer in the market, noting that AvaSure is an established, recognizable name, and that customers recognize the platform’s ability to drive outcomes, saying that in addition to reducing patient falls, the solution reduces tube/line interferences, prevents patients from taking outside drugs, and ensures staff safety by preventing patient aggression.
The KLAS report also found that customers have experienced positive financial outcomes from being able to scale sitters’ capacity to observe patients and prevent adverse events. In addition to driving significant ROI, the AvaSure platform was rated at 8.2 out of 9 by customers in terms of getting their money’s worth from the investment. Additionally, the 2022 KLAS Emerging Solutions Top 20 Report ranked AvaSure first for the greatest impact on reducing the cost of care.
“AvaSure’s use cases for telesitting provide a huge return on investment,” said one director, July 2023. “Instead of having multiple in-person sitters, we are using one person. We have economies of scale, and those give us that financial return. Even if we wanted to pay for in-person sitters, there is a scarcity of resources to get them. AvaSure has improved our patient outcomes for falls, fall prevention, and staff retention. It is frustrating when nurses don’t have the resources they need. AvaSure has been an avenue for our nurses to get those resources through different means.”
Separately, the report revealed that respondents overwhelmingly agree that virtual sitting and nursing solutions have been helpful in addressing staffing shortages. These solutions have helped organizations to increase their observation capacity from a 1:1 sitter-to-patient ratio, enabling one sitter to now observe several patients, freeing up skilled clinical staff previously assigned to sitting roles, and allowing them to apply their skills and expertise more meaningfully where needed the most.
“This KLAS report validates that AvaSure’s virtual care platform is helping customers achieve genuine improvements to patient outcomes while alleviating staffing shortages and reducing costs,” said Adam McMullin, CEO, AvaSure. “Customers continue to choose AvaSure because our solution is unmatched in its ability to combine intelligent workflow designs and thoughtful enhancements such as AI, integrations, cloud-based offerings, and flexible devices at scale. Our team is committed to supporting our customers at every stage of their virtual care journey, ensuring they have the tools and guidance they need to succeed.”
The latest report is not the first time AvaSure has been recognized by KLAS. For example, earlier this year, AvaSure earned top marks from KLAS in a Second Look Performance report, which found that all interviewed customers were satisfied to highly satisfied with AvaSure’s solution, noting AvaSure has continued to improve and deliver on its product, and that 100% of respondents would buy again.
KLAS is a research organization that helps healthcare providers make informed technology decisions by offering impartial vendor performance information.
About AvaSure
AvaSure provides the leading virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions to systems with nursing and staffing shortages that are challenged to significantly reduce labor costs without sacrificing patient health outcomes. Recognized by KLAS Research as the leader in reducing the cost of patient care, AvaSure is the pioneer in providing best-in-class, video-based AvaSure TeleSitter® and TeleNurse™ solutions. As a trusted partner of more than 1,100 hospitals, AvaSure combines virtual safety attendants, virtual nurses and other providers on a single platform to enhance clinical care without placing any additional burdens on existing staff. To learn more about AvaSure visit www.avasure.com.
Fill out the form to read more about our unified Virtual Care Platform for Virtual Sitting and Virtual Nursing and how it can lead your organization to a future where cutting edge technology and compassionate care converge.
Improved nurse satisfaction and retention cited by CNOs as top reason to implement virtual nursing solutions, AvaSure-Joslin Insight survey reveals
BELMONT, Mich., Sept. 14, 2023 — AvaSure, the market leader in acute virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions, announced the results of a primary market research survey revealing that the majority of chief nursing officers (CNOs) view virtual nursing as integral to care delivery models in acute patient care.
The Virtual Nursing Insight Survey of 789 health professionals also found that:
CNOs believe that the three most important metrics for measuring the success of virtual nursing programs are improving nurse satisfaction and retention (86%), improving workload burden for current staff (82%), and improving patient experience (81%).
CNOs see numerous use cases in which virtual nursing can deliver a positive impact in acute patient care, with the most frequently cited responses as discharge (59%), admissions (53%), patient education (51%), expert clinical oversight (35%), and rounding (24%).
Most CNOs feel there is an opportunity to recruit nurses who are either unable or unwilling to work at the bedside to work as a virtual nurse.
“The survey results underscore the importance to health systems of using technology to augment front-line staff amid a climate of unsustainable costs and labor shortages,” said Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, chief clinical officer, AvaSure. “Virtual nursing technology extends the reach of bedside nurses, giving them more time for direct, hands-on patient care and resulting in reduced costs for health systems.”
Nursing represents a significant staffing crisis for hospitals worldwide. A total of 13 million nurses will need to be replaced globally within the coming years, according to a report from the International Council of Nurses, a shortage that could result in a “global health emergency.” As a result, an increasing number of nurse leaders are interested in exploring virtual nursing technology, which uses mobile audio and video monitoring devices to connect bedside staff to a remote care support team.
The Virtual Nursing Insight Survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Joslin Insight on behalf of AvaSure between April 10 and 18, 2023. The survey received responses from 789 healthcare professionals primarily working in acute care settings, including nurse leaders, managers, educators and key decision makers.
AvaSure provides the leading hospital virtual care platform to systems with nursing and staffing shortages that are challenged to significantly reduce labor costs without sacrificing patient health outcomes. Recognized by KLAS Research as the leader in reducing the cost of patient care, AvaSure is the pioneer in providing best-in-class, video-based AvaSure TeleSitter® and TeleNurse™ solutions. As a trusted partner of more than 1,000 hospitals, AvaSure combines remote patient monitors, virtual nurses and other providers on a single platform to enhance clinical care without placing any additional burdens on existing staff. To learn more about AvaSure visit www.avasure.com.
About Joslin Insight
Joslin Insight operates as a healthcare market strategy consultancy. Leveraging unbiased qualitative and quantitative research, the company provides market intelligence and real-time data analytics for leading healthcare organizations. Their research has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Forbes, TIME, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Bloomberg News, as well as by the United States Senate Committee on Finance, the United States Surgeon General’s Advisory, and the White House COVID-19 Task Force.
Join us for a transformative session as we conclude the captivating journey through our virtual nursing 101 classroom series. In this final installment, Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, Chief Clinical Officer, will distill the invaluable insights and profound wisdom garnered over the past six months of sessions from pioneering virtual nursing programs.
In this webinar, Lisbeth will uncover:
The essential considerations surrounding traditional care paradigms
How to embark on an exploration of the dynamic co-caring model
How this paradigm shift can effectively address the pressing challenges of care quality, patient experience, and cost containment
Don’t miss this unparalleled opportunity to learn from the forefront of nursing innovation. Join us for an engaging session that promises to empower you with the knowledge and strategies to not only initiate change but to shape the future of nursing care. Secure your spot today and be a part of this transformative experience as we uncover the pathway to redefining healthcare through virtual nursing excellence.
Last week AvaSure hosted our 1st Annual Digital Summit: Start, Scale & Succeed with Virtual Sitting. During this one-day educational event, we featured over 10 current AvaSure customers to share their best practices & learnings from deploying virtual sitting programs. Read on to hear how they were able to improve outcomes, optimize their labor force and protect staff all while helping to reduce costs.
There were so many exceptional discussions centered around today’s challenges – staffing being front and center. We know that hospitals across the U.S. are struggling to find enough nurses and support staff to run efficiently, so technology is helping to bridge the gap. With the AvaSure TeleSitter® Solution, hospitals are replacing the need for traditional 1:1 sitters by using Virtual Safety Attendants (VSAs) to monitor up to 12 patients remotely while reducing adverse events. Seem too good to be true? The results just may be.
How Valley Health Reduced the Use of 1:1 Sitters While Decreasing Falls
Valley Health System shared their story of starting a TeleSitter program four years ago that has gone on to help:
Reduce falls with injury by 50%
Save over $1 million dollars from combined fall reduction and sitter cost reduction
Achieve an 80% device utilization across the system
When discussing why they chose to work with AvaSure, they said, “We wanted to work with the experts to show us how this has worked at other organizations. Other organizations have made mistakes, had those mistakes corrected and so we are the beneficiaries of that. We wanted to focus on what we are good at. What we aren’t good at is setting up our own sitter program. But, what we are good at is knowing our needs, selecting the best partner out there and picking someone who could address our needs today & help us go beyond that in the future.” AvaSure has helped over 1,000 customers just like Valley Health start their programs and we have the clinical expertise to help make it as turnkey as possible for your staff.
Use Cases for TeleSitter solutions extend beyond just falls
Success of virtual sitting extends beyond just the acute care setting, Gaylord Specialty Healthcare gave a sneak preview of yet-to-be published results of how AvaSure helped optimize their LTACH program.
While virtual sitting programs may be best known for helping reduce falls, their use extends far beyond that one use case. We heard from Rachel Krajnovich, MSN, RN-BC, Director of Clinical Operations atHCA Kingwood on utilizing virtual monitoring for suicide risk & behavioral health patients.
Suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the U.S. across all age groups and the number of patients requiring suicide monitoring in acute care has increased 165% since 2019
45% of hospitals that utilize AvaSure have monitored over 75,000 suicide risk patients across 45 states
This lesser-known use case can be extremely effective in helping to monitor low and moderate suicide risk patients, and is proven to be equally effective to in-person sitters for this population(1). These customers shared best practices regarding how they evaluate patients to be placed in the program, how they helped to get physicians and staff on board with utilizing virtual monitoring for this high-risk population and how it has helped them extend access of needed yet scarce mental health resources in ERs today.
Expanding to other use cases is just one example of scaling your program, you can also help to extend the reach of your program across various facilities in your system, helping you to achieve greater scale and efficiency. Providence Oregon Region shared how they built a ‘hub and spoke’ model – which involves having devices across multiple facilities with monitor staff at one, centralized hub watching patients across the system. This can help create a highly effective staff that is able to protect patients across the system and optimize your device utilization. Hear how they were able to achieve an average stat alarm response time of 12-15 seconds, well below the national average of 17 seconds.
Virtual Safety Attendants are Key to Program Success
As always, one of our most popular sessions was best practices from Virtual Safety Attendants – sharing how they’ve built teams of heroes that work 24/7 to connect with patients, keep them safe, keep them calm & help assist them on their recovery journey. We heard from a VSA, Tom Dezell from Froedtert, who shared when thinking back on advice he’d give himself on his first day:
“That I cannot let my fear of something happening to the patient interfere with my taking care of the patient. In other words, I can’t respond out of fear, I have to respond out of patient advocacy and confidence.”
His demonstrated commitment to his patients brought emotions to all who listened as he spoke so passionately and eloquently about the time he spends helping patients.
What Does the Future of Virtual Care Look Like?
We closed the day with Claire Zangerle, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAONL, FAAN, Nurse Executive with CMZ Strategies, LLC discussing the future of virtual care with AvaSure Chief Clinical Officer, Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN. In discussing her hopes for the future of nursing in this new virtual care environment she said,
“It’s our time as nurses to step up and make sure we’re listened to. We have to tell people how great it is to be a nurse and what it means to be a nurse. We’re in danger of people saying that the job is too hard to do. Everyone wants to work remote now, you can’t be hands on and work remote. You have to promote the value of human interaction, it’s so important. We know we don’t have enough staff and enough people to do human interaction whether it’s in a hospital, ASC, community health center, we know we don’t have enough people. We need to meet patients where they are, and we need to think of new ways to meet patients. We aren’t thinking about this because we don’t have enough staff, it’s also because that’s what patients want. We are looking at ways to make sure they get what they want.”
Nursing has always been and will always be an essential and noble profession that relies on hands-on patient care, clinical expertise & empathizers who care deeply about the lives of their patients. AvaSure believes that nurses should always be central to care, which is why we featured nurses throughout our summit – as moderators, hosts & panelists to demonstrate the vital role they play in the shifting care model moving forward.
We look forward to sharing more insights, recaps and full session replays of Digital Summit for those who have missed it, and we look forward to seeing you IN-PERSON at our upcoming Annual Symposium October 25th – 26th in Grand Rapids, Michigan – learn more here.
1 Kroll, D. S. et al., (2020). Virtual monitoring of suicide risk in the general hospital and emergency department. General hospital psychiatry, 63, 33–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2019.01.002
Once you’ve sold your teams on virtual nursing, picking the right partner is essential.
In this session, you’ll learn:
Criteria to use to select the right partner for program success & what requirements should guide your decision
How technology will impact your program and details around emerging trends towards AI/Machine Learning, camera-in-every-room, and more
This free, six-part series will take place the last Thursday of each month featuring Lisbeth along with special guests and experts. Lisbeth will cover key topics, lessons learned from ongoing programs, and audience questions.
This model of virtual nursing focuses on retaining an experienced nurse to oversee a cohort of complex patients, monitoring for early signs of adverse patient events, mentoring novice nurses and providing support to bedside care teams.
Hear from Lisbeth Votruba, RN, MSN, CCO of AvaSure and the team from UCHealth, Amy Hassell, RN, MSN, Director of Patient Services and Dr. Hemali Patel, ACMO of Inpatient Services. Amy and Dr. Patel work in the innovative Virtual Care Center at UCHealth which helps to support monitoring for patient deterioration, post rapid-response monitoring and more using the Expert Oversight model of Virtual Nursing. Hear about how their program started, outcomes they’ve experienced over the past year and roadblocks they’ve faced in scaling their virtual nursing efforts.
In this session, you’ll learn:
What’s driving the need for this nursing model, areas of focus and hear best practices from those who’ve already piloted.
Early outcomes from those already using this model to help detect adverse events sooner and drive satisfaction in nursing staff, especially novice team members.
Tips on staffing and scaling your virtual nursing program
Presenters: Amy Hassell RN, MSN, Senior Director of Patient Services, UCHealth Virtual Health Center Dr. Hemali Patel, MD, ACMO, Inpatient Services, UCHealth
This free, six-part series will take place the last Thursday of each month featuring Lisbeth along with special guests and experts. Lisbeth will cover key topics, lessons learned from ongoing programs, and audience questions.
