Join AvaSure Chief Clinical Officer, Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, for Session 2! In this on-demand webinar, you’ll learn:
How the Clinical Resource TeleNurse focuses on offloading documentation and administrative burden from bedside teams, helping to optimize your labor force and deliver elevated patient care
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 reduce discharge time, increase patient & staff satisfaction and optimize outcomes
With six virtual nursing implementations underway, AvaSure is leading the way in hospital virtual nursing deployments
BELMONT, Mich., April 25, 2023 — AvaSure, the inventor of the TeleSitter® solution and the market leader in acute virtual care and remote safety monitoring, announced today that it has launched a Virtual Nursing application and Care Model to support six virtual nursing implementations with many more in early planning phases.
Hospitals and health systems have been compelled to explore new models of nursing care during a period of escalating labor costs and widespread staffing shortages. For example, 52% of nurses are considering leaving the bedside, at a time when there are more than 1.1 million vacancies. Hospital leaders know the current approach is not sustainable, and experts estimate that 83% are considering virtual nursing as a solution.
To help hospitals and health systems respond to these growing market needs, AvaSure has recently launched several new virtual nursing-related initiatives.
AvaSure’s Nurse Elevated Care Model
As the pioneer in virtual sitting with the AvaSure TeleSitter® Solution, the company has expanded its offerings to support a more comprehensive nurse elevated care model. Consisting of virtual telehealth technology, and a team of nurses to support clinical technology adoption, AvaSure’s approach to virtual nursing represents an innovative new model of care that creates an augmented care environment where a virtual team provides support – offloading documentation burden, providing a second set of eyes on complex patients and helping to close the growing experience/complexity gap in nursing – to the bedside team.
To address growing labor challenges, six hospitals have recently adopted AvaSure’s TeleNurse™ solution, which enables health systems to reduce labor costs while liberating their bedside nurses to provide elevated, hands-on patient care.
“Nine out of ten hospital leaders say they’re considering some form of virtual nursing, but just a small percentage have actually started a program – why the gap? Many don’t know where to begin,” said Adam McMullin, CEO, AvaSure. “We have implemented our pioneering TeleSitter® solution in a thousand hospitals to establish virtual care. Many of these hospitals are now turning to us to partner on a virtual nursing program in order to reap further clinical, operational, and financial benefits from the AvaSure virtual care platform.”
Click here to learn how AvaSure customers have used virtual nursing solutions to improve HCAHPS scores, reduce code blues and decrease discharge times.
Two Models of Virtual Nursing Emerging
Some hospitals are implementing a model of virtual nursing called the Expert Oversight TeleNurse® that focuses on overseeing higher acuity patients for potential deterioration triggers, supporting novice nurses & conducting virtual rounding. In an article in Healthcare IT News, Amy Hassell, BSN, RN, CCRN, senior director for the Virtual Health Center for UCHealth, spoke about the key benefit of this model.
“They (virtual nurses) are able to see what’s occurring so that it’s just like we’re in the room with that care team member,” Hassell explained. “When we do this, it helps us cut down on phone calls and interruptions at the bedside, allowing us to still participate and do our part of the program. The program provides support and makes sure milestones of care are being met throughout that deterioration event, and help triage if needed.”
Several other hospitals are implementing a model of virtual nursing called the Clinical Resource TeleNurse® focused on admission & discharge support, patient & family education, consults and more. This model supports episodic intervention with two-way audio/video technology allowing personal interaction with the patient during important care tasks.
An East Coast hospital has expanded its AvaSure program from virtual sitting to virtual nursing, a simple process because both functions are performed via AvaSure’s virtual care platform. The transition will enable the health system to deliver a greater level of support to front-line nurses and bedside caregivers.
A Midwest hospital has implemented AvaSure’s TeleSitter® and TeleNurse™ solutions to integrate with its Epic electronic health record. The hospital is defining new workflows in which virtual nursing can make a difference in enhancing their care teams.
After having successfully implemented a virtual sitting program in 2020 with AvaSure in its medical surgical and intensive units, a hospital in the Southeast has launched a pilot virtual nursing program to decrease ED holding times by streamlining admission from the emergency department to inpatient beds. The Medical Center sees this as a way to support nurses on the frontlines without compromising patient safety or patient experience.
Medical-surgical Virtual Nurse Certification
AvaSure Chief Clinical Officer Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN is participating as a subject matter expert on the task force that has defined the role of the virtual nurse and will be creating a medical-surgical virtual nurse certification from the Medical Surgical Nursing Certification Board, which will be launched later this year. Votruba pioneered virtual sitting and has published five studies helping to establish virtual sitting as a standard of care for patient safety in the hospital setting.
AvaSure recently announced a six-part virtual classroom series, “Virtual Nursing 101,” in which Votruba details how nursing leaders can launch and implement virtual nursing programs. In the series, Votruba is joined by special guests and experts who cover key topics, such as the role of the virtual nurse, how to be certified, how to build a virtual nursing business case, as well as lessons learned from current programs. This free, six-part series takes place between March and August. To register, click here.
AvaSure provides the leading hospital virtual care platform to systems with nursing and staffing shortages that are challenged to significantly reduce labor costs without sacrificing patient health outcomes. Recently recognized by KLAS Research as the leader in reducing the cost of patient care, AvaSure is the pioneer in providing best-in-class, video-based AvaSure TeleSitter® and TeleNurse™ solutions. As a trusted partner of more than 1,000 hospitals, AvaSure combines remote patient monitors, virtual nurses and other providers on a single platform to enhance clinical care without placing any additional burdens on existing staff. To learn more about AvaSure visit www.avasure.com.
Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes Amendola Communications
AvaSure Session Day 1: Change agents – Managing Innovation to Achieve Results
Applying a new tech-based solution is all about the follow-through, a continual process of improvement, and expansion to new use cases. Hear from health care leaders who have succeeded with large-scale implementations across the enterprise.
Presented by: Ochsner Health, Oregon Health & Science University, and Ascension
Read our white paper on how the Nurse Elevated Care Model can help reduce labor costs and allow bedside nurses to spend more hands-on time with patients.
Summary
Nursing shortages, patient acuity increase and an uptick in behavioral health challenges have created a perfect storm in healthcare. Nurses are being stretched too thin, constantly asked to do more with less resulting in 52% of nurses considering leaving the bedside when shortages are already at an all time high. This environment forces hospital leadership to think differently about how technology can help create a new model of care delivery.
Introducing the Nurse Elevated Care Model by AvaSure. An augmented care environment where a virtual team provides support – offloading documentation burden, providing a second set of eyes on complex patients and helping to close growing experience/complexity gap in nursing – to the bedside team. This model of care helps health systems reduce labor costs while liberating their bedside nurses to provide elevated, hands-on patient care.
Provide your information to download the full white paper.
Now, the most proactive healthcare organizations are exploring initiatives to mitigate the effects of a growing labor shortage. Learn how central video monitoring enabled “virtual nurses” to support bedside nurses and uphold high standards of patient care amid a COVID-19 surge across Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System.
Key learning points:
The basic components of virtual care, including the easy-to-use technology involved to interact with patients and bedside staff
The policies and workflows that best support virtual nursing staff and make for easy implementation
How virtual nurses can use specialized care resources to alleviate existing staff
Join AvaSure Chief Clinical Officer, Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, as we kick off a six-part classroom series: Virtual Nursing 101. Lisbeth had a special guest Terri Hinkley, CEO of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses on this first webinar to discuss the important role of the virtual nurse and the creation of the MSNCB Role Certification. The two task force members of the certification dived into key competencies to look for when hiring a virtual nurse and how to recruit for this role without taking away from bedside staff or further exacerbating staffing challenges.
Introducing the Nurse Elevated Care Model from AvaSure
An augmented care environment where a virtual team provides support – offloading documentation burden, providing a second set of eyes on complex patients and helping to close growing experience/complexity gap in nursing – to the bedside team. This model of care helps health systems reduce labor costs while liberating their bedside nurses to provide elevated, hands-on patient care.
52% of nurses are considering leaving the bedside, at a time where there are 1.1M+ vacancies. Hospital leadership knows they need a change, 83% are considering virtual nursing as a solution but don’t know where to start.
We call this the Nurse Elevated Care Model because it does just that – elevates your nursing team for optimal care.
Learn how AvaSure customers have used the Nurse Elevated Care Model to achieve results
Sarah Brown MSN, RN, CMPE, NEA-BC at UnityPoint Health, discusses the challenges her nursing staff faced during the pandemic and how this caused massive burnout throughout their system. Quality of care was being compromised, so leadership agreed to make innovative changes and identified the use of AvaSure TeleNurse™ solutions as a potential solve. Sarah noted, “Virtual Nursing in the med-surg area immediately helped our nurses at bedside and has grown astronomically quickly.”
Early results of TeleNurse™ Programs:
Increases in HCAHPS: 7.6% increase in patient understanding of purpose of taking medication, 2.04% increase in top box score for transition of care
Discharges completed by the virtual nurse currently have lower rates of readmission – this is an early trend; they’re waiting to see more results over time to consider it correlated
