Topic: Virtual Sitting

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. 
  1. Continuous Observation (TeleSitting): Centralized video observation reduces falls, elopements, and 1:1 sitter costs. 
  1. 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. 

How Providence Health used virtual sitting to reduce nurse burnout—backed by published clinical research. 

Posted on February 18, 2026 by - Uncategorized

Reducing Nurse Burnout Through Virtual Sitting 

Challenge

Virtual sitting is widely recognized for its ability to reduce patient falls and lower costs. However, Providence Health wanted to better understand an equally critical question: 

  • Does virtual sitting reduce emotional exhaustion and burnout among nurses? 
  • How do bedside nurses perceive virtual sitters compared to in-person sitters? 

With rising concerns around workforce sustainability, emotional labor, and workplace violence, Providence sought clinical evidence to evaluate how different monitoring models impact nurse well-being. 

Study Overview

Providence conducted a rigorous, real-world study across two Magnet-designated hospitals: 

  • Providence Medical Center (Anchorage, AK) 
  • Providence St. Peter Hospital (Olympia, WA) 

Study Design

  • 524 experience-sampling surveys 
  • 74 bedside nurses 
  • Conducted over a 3-week period 
  • Published in the Western Journal of Nursing Research (August 2023) 

The study examined emotional exhaustion, perceived workload, and the impact of both virtual and in-person sitters on daily nursing practice. 

Key Findings

Virtual sitting reduces nurse burnout 

  • Virtual sitting significantly lowered emotional exhaustion—especially among nurses with lower organizational commitment, a group often at higher risk for burnout and turnover. 

In-person sitters increase emotional labor 

  • In-person sitters were frequently perceived as a drain on nursing resources and contributors to emotional fatigue rather than a source of support. 

Virtual sitters are viewed as a valued resource 

  • Nurses described virtual sitting as safer, more reliable, and less disruptive to care delivery. 
  • These findings build on earlier Providence research (2020) showing bedside nurses prefer virtual sitting over in-person models. 

Impact

For Providence, virtual sitting delivers more than patient safety—it supports the resilience and sustainability of the nursing workforce. 

By reducing emotional exhaustion, minimizing unnecessary emotional labor, and keeping nurses focused on direct patient care, virtual sitting helps: 

  • Improve nurse well-being and job satisfaction 
  • Reduce burnout risk 
  • Enable scalable, technology-enabled staffing models 
  • Maintain safety while keeping clinicians at the bedside 

Virtual sitting has also played a key role in addressing workplace violence risk. 

“Twenty percent of our monitored patients are related to workplace violence. Lowering the threshold for reporting and monitoring these patients has helped us better protect our team.” 

About Providence Health

  • Magnet-designated health system 
  • Study sites: 
  • Providence Medical Center (Anchorage, AK) 
  • Providence St. Peter Hospital (Olympia, WA) 

Link to Clinical Evidence: https://avasure.com/resource/an-experience-sampling-analysis-of-the-impact-of-video-monitoring-technology-and-in-person-sitters-on-nurse-burnout/ 

Link to Webinar: https://avasure.com/resource/revolutionizing-nurse-well-being-how-video-monitoring-reduces-nurse-burnout/ 

From Sitters to Strategy: How Virtual Sitting Delivered $3.2M in Measurable Impact

Posted on February 18, 2026 by - Uncategorized

Kalafas, L. et al, (2025) Implementation of a continuous video monitoring to decrease inpatient falls in a long term acute care hospital setting: a prospective observational cohort study. Published in the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) 125(12):20-27.

Driving Measurable Quality and Financial Outcomes with Virtual Sitting

This newly published peer-reviewed study provides one of the most rigorous evaluations to date of a continuous virtual video monitoring program in a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) setting — demonstrating sustained improvements in both patient safety and financial performance over 40 months. 

Key Results

25% reduction in patient falls 

  • Statistically significant decrease in falls (p = 0.02) 

90% reduction in 1:1 sitter hours 

  • Highly significant reduction in sitter utilization (p < 0.001) 

$3.2M in total cost savings 

  • $160,234 ROI from sitter cost reductions 
  • $3,041,390 in avoided fall-related costs 
  • Based on updated cost-of-falls estimates from Dykes et al. ($35,365 per fall) 

Challenge

Hospitals continue to search for scalable ways to reduce patient falls while controlling the high costs associated with one-to-one sitters. While virtual sitting has shown promise in acute care settings, there has been limited long-term, peer-reviewed evidence demonstrating both quality and financial outcomes—particularly in long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs). 

This organization sought to answer critical questions: 

  • Can a virtual sitter program meaningfully reduce falls over time? 
  • Can it significantly decrease reliance on costly 1:1 sitters? 
  • What are the true financial returns when outcomes are measured transparently? 

Study Design & Setting

  • 137-bed long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) 
  • 20 months of baseline data 
  • 20 months of intervention data 
  • Published in the American Journal of Nursing (AJN), the oldest and largest circulating, broad-based nursing journal globally 

The extended patient length of stay in the LTACH setting allowed virtual sitters to develop deeper familiarity with patient behaviors, enabling more proactive and effective monitoring strategies. 

Financial Analysis

The organization took a transparent, conservative approach to financial modeling: 

  • Sitter cost savings were calculated directly from reduced 1:1 sitter hours 
  • Fall-related cost avoidance used contemporary, peer-reviewed cost benchmarks 

Together, these outcomes generated $3.2M in measurable financial impact.

Best Practices & Operational Insights

The study provides actionable insights into how these outcomes were achieved—not just the results themselves. 

Intentional Resource Management

  • Virtual sitters were actively assigned, reassigned, and discontinued based on patient need 
  • The program avoided “set it and forget it” monitoring 

Optimized Sitter-to-Patient Ratios

  • Ratio increased from 1:10 in the first 9 months 
  • Expanded to 1:12 in the final 11 months of the study 

As the ratio increased: 

  • One-to-one sitter hours continued to decline 
  • Fall rates continued to decrease 

This demonstrated that the higher ratio delivered superior quality and financial outcomes, challenging assumptions that lower ratios are always safer or more effective. 

Summary

This pioneering LTACH study reinforces what earlier acute care research has shown: when virtual sitting is deployed thoughtfully and managed intentionally, it can deliver meaningful improvements in patient safety while generating substantial cost savings. 

By pairing long-term data, transparent financial analysis, and operational discipline, this organization demonstrated how virtual sitting can evolve from a staffing alternative into a strategic, high-value care model. 

AvaSure and Equum Medical Expand Partnership to Deliver Physician-Led Virtual Care Across the Enterprise 

Posted on January 20, 2026 by - Popular, Uncategorized

AvaSure and Equum expand partnership

Expanded enterprise platform enables specialty consults, hospitalist coverage, and critical care support—helping health systems respond to workforce shortages, margin pressure, and access gaps.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., and NEW YORK — January 20th, 2026 — AvaSure, a leading virtual care and smart room platform provider with an installed base across more than 1,200 hospitals, and Equum Medical, a telehealth-enabled clinical workforce organization partnering with 240+ hospitals and health systems across 13+ service lines, today announced an expanded partnership. The collaboration brings physician-led virtual care (multi-specialty consults, virtual critical care / eICU and virtual hospitalist coverage) onto AvaSure’s enterprise virtual care platform. 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. Building on the strong patient safety and workforce optimization ROI achieved through virtual observation and virtual nursing, the expansion helps health systems protect and grow contribution margin by retaining higher-acuity patients, minimizing out-of-network transfers, and maintaining continuity of care that drives downstream revenue from inpatient services, specialty consults, and follow-up treatment–while improving access to expertise and optimizing clinical resources. This integrated partnership model, available on a single platform, enables health systems to seamlessly leverage their existing IT investments while expanding clinical workflows from nursing to include the expertise of physicians and specialists. 

Hospitals continue to face staffing shortages and margin pressure while expanding digital care models beyond the bedside. As leaders raise expectations for governance, interoperability, and measurable outcomes, virtual care is increasingly treated as an enterprise platform decision (SAGE 2025 C-Suite Survey). 

“Health systems are running lean, and physician shortages are real,” Equum Medical CEO Dr. Corey Scurlock has watched the change in telehealth prioritization since Equum’s inception in 2011. “This partnership gives leaders a practical path to add specialty and high-acuity coverage, reduce transfer pressure, and deliver timely care to patients where they are, supported by clinical workflows and operational discipline.” 

The expanded AvaSure–Equum partnership combines AvaSure’s enterprise platform, built to support multiple virtual care applications across the inpatient continuum, with Equum Medical’s clinical leadership, physician staffing, and end-to-end delivery of virtual acute care service lines. 

“Our customers want an enterprise virtual care and smart room platform that supports multiple clinical applications with the reliability, governance, and broad ecosystem integration. Expanding our partnership with Equum brings physician-led virtual care onto the same foundation many hospitals already use for virtual nursing, clinical automation, and virtual observation–enabling teams to realize the financial and clinical benefits of extended coverage and improved access while preventing patient leakage, without rebuilding their technology stack,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure. 

The joint solution supports physician-led virtual care applications, including: 

  • 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

AvaSure’s recent platform investments focus on enabling AI-driven, smart hospital environments at enterprise scale, with built-in security and governance, deep interoperability across EHR and core IT systems, standardized clinical and operational workflows, and analytics that power intelligent automation and real-time operational execution. Commenting on the platform’s design approach, Jacob Hansen, Chief Product and Technology Officer at AvaSure, added:said, “Enterprise virtual care is a platform decision, not a single point of service product. We have built an architecture that supports multiple workflows—including those built by AvaSure, our partner ecosystem, and our customers’ own AI applications—on shared infrastructure designed to serve as the foundation for a smart hospital strategy. This enables health systems to expand virtual care across specialties over time while maintaining consistent performance and governance.”  

AvaSure and Equum will launch a joint outreach initiative in 2026 to help hospitals and health systems evaluate physician-led virtual care applications and plan expansion across the inpatient continuum.  During the Annual HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition happening March 9-12 in Las Vegas, joint presentations by the partners will focus on the future of Workforce Optimization and Enterprise Telehealth. Attendees are invited to continue the conversation at AvaSure booth #5444. 

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 1,200+ hospitals with experience in over 5,000 deployments. To learn more, visit www.avasure.com.

About Equum Medical 
Equum Medical is a leading provider of telehealth-enabled workforce solutions and trusted nationwide partner to over 240 hospitals specializing in high-acuity care and acute patient monitoring across the continuum of care. Founded in 2011, Equum Medical partners with hospitals and healthcare systems nationwide to expand capacity, improve clinical outcomes, and enhance patient experiences. 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. Learn more about Equum here: www.equummedical.com.

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

Equum: Karsten Russell-Wood 
410-409-7376 
Karsten.russell-wood@equummedical.com  

AvaSure Achieves Epic Toolbox Designation for Inpatient Virtual Care

Posted on November 10, 2025 by - Featured, Uncategorized

AvaSure and Epic Toolbox PR image

[Grand Rapids, MI – November 10, 2025] – AvaSure, the market leader in acute virtual care, is proud to announce that its Virtual Care Platform has achieved designation in Epic’s Toolbox for the Inpatient Virtual Care category. This recognition confirms that AvaSure’s Virtual Care Platform has successfully met Epic’s recommended practices for integration and functionality in this category.

AvaSure empowers health systems with an AI-powered platform that supports a wide range of hospital workflows – including virtual nursing, virtual visits, patient observation, and more. AvaSure stands out with a proven track record of helping hospitals enhance workforce productivity and achieve financial outcomes by using virtual care to improve throughput and expand care access, while also creating a culture of staff and patient safety with AI-augmented observation programs. 

Built to meet Epic’s recommended practices for Embedded Context-Aware Linking (ECAL) and Context-Aware Linking (CAL), AvaSure delivers a fully integrated virtual care experience within existing clinical workflows, including:

  • Virtual Visits: Launch AvaSure-enabled virtual visits directly from Epic user interfaces, enabling care teams to connect with patients in real time — without leaving Epic.
  • Epic Monitor: Pair AvaSure’s clinical-grade device platform with Epic Monitor Remote Sitter for centralized oversight and faster response across hospital units for clinical scenarios such as fall prevention, patient safety, and staff duress.
  • MyChart Bedside TV: Enhance the inpatient experience by enabling two-way virtual visits directly from the in-room TV, creating a more connected and responsive care environment.

Reaching the Toolbox milestone marks the latest step in AvaSure’s long-standing relationship with Epic, which has focused on advancing virtual care integration. Over the years, AvaSure has strengthened its capabilities to provide clinicians with deeper, embedded access to virtual workflows across the enterprise, with existing HL7 and CAL integrations available.

“Achieving Epic Toolbox designation is the latest example of AvaSure’s commitment to delivering real value for our customers,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure. By embedding virtual care seamlessly into Epic workflows, we help hospitals achieve measurable financial improvements, strengthen staff and patient safety, and create a better experience for both patients and clinicians. Just as importantly, we partner with care teams through proven change management practices to ensure these results are realized together.”

With over 1,200 hospital customers and over 15 years of proven ROI and outcomes, AvaSure is leading the way in transforming inpatient care through intelligent virtual care solutions. To learn more about AvaSure’s Virtual Care Platform integrated with Epic and how it can support your organization, schedule a call today.

Epic and MyChart are registered trademarks of Epic Systems Corporation.

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 1,200+ hospitals with experience in over 5,000 deployments. To learn more, visit www.avasure.com.

74% of hospital leaders say virtual nursing will become integral to acute care

Posted on December 11, 2024 by - Featured, Uncategorized

A nurse expert discusses the results of a new survey from AvaSure showing that, while virtual nursing has yet to gain traction in acute inpatient care, it holds much promise – and already is showing results that benefit both nurses and the bottom line

By Bill Siwicki, Managing Editor at HIMSS Media

In 2024, just 10% of hospital leaders and 14% of hospital IT leaders have reached the phase where virtual nursing is a standard part of care delivery – in both groups, 30% reported no virtual nursing, according to a new study, “The Virtual Care Insight Survey,” from AvaSure, a virtual nursing technology and services company.

At the same time, despite the slow march toward virtual nursing maturity, 74% of hospital leaders believe virtual nursing is or will become integral to care delivery models in acute inpatient care, up from 66% in last year’s survey.

“The Virtual Care Insight Survey” was conducted online by Joslin Insight in collaboration with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership on behalf of AvaSure. This survey was a follow-up from a survey 18 months ago, creating a longitudinal view on how perceptions and strategies are quickly evolving in virtual nursing.

The surveys combined received responses from more than 1,000 healthcare professionals (789 in 2023 and 340 in 2024) primarily working in acute care settings.

At least 30% were nurse leaders or key decision makers, collectively referred to as “hospital leaders.” To complement the nurse survey, AvaSure gathered insights from 29 hospital IT leaders (mostly CIOs) regarding inpatient virtual care adoption.

Key features of inpatient virtual care include virtual sitting, virtual nursing, episodic consults, ambient listening and generative AI.

We spoke with Lisbeth Votruba, RN, chief clinical officer at AvaSure, to dig into the survey results.

Q: This year, just 10% of hospital leaders and 14% of hospital IT leaders have reached the phase where virtual nursing is a standard part of care delivery. In both groups of leaders, 30% reported no virtual nursing. What are the challenges in getting virtual nursing to become a standard way of delivering care?

A. Health systems face significant and ongoing workforce challenges, particularly in attracting and retaining qualified clinical staff. These create significant financial difficulties for hospitals, which limits the time and budget to adopt and innovate with new technologies. While paradoxically, it is the new technologies that will support a transformation in care delivery that is needed to address these workforce challenges.

Although the nursing shortage has transitioned from acute to more chronic in 2024, nearly 900,000 more nurses, or roughly one fifth of the 4.5 million registered nurses nationwide, plan to leave due to stress, burnout and retirement by 2027. When you’re faced with these types of deficits, projects like launching virtual care – despite its ability to lower burdens on staff – are deemed cumbersome.

Many stakeholders acknowledge the importance of nurses working at the top of license, yet few address the issue of the acute shortage of unlicensed support staff, part and parcel to achieving this goal. Nursing assistants’ turn-over rate continues to climb year over year, sitting currently at 42%.

Given these financial constraints, hospital CIOs must quickly demonstrate return on investment for new technology initiatives. Fortunately, virtual care is conducive to this. Hospitals can begin with virtual sitting safety observation, which can then lead to rapid improvement in reducing falls and other adverse incidents, shorter patient stays, and reduced risk.

Over the long term, investment in virtual nursing has the power to generate substantive growth in critical metrics relating to patient and staff satisfaction.

Q. This year, 46% of hospital leaders are piloting or have implemented virtual nursing. That number has grown from 38% a year ago. Nearly half is fairly sizable for an area of virtual care that is fairly new. What factors are driving these hospitals and health systems?

A. There are several stages on the road to virtual care maturity. Virtual care is far from an all-or-nothing or one-size-fits-all model. The providers that have the most success in the realm of virtual care view it as a phased process that begins with select deployments of virtual sitting or virtual nursing solutions.

Most organizations that launch virtual care programs start with virtual sitting, which enables virtual safety attendants to watch over patients with video and audio connections, thereby improving patient safety. Moreover, a typical 250-bed hospital can save more than $2.5 million in costs annually by replacing up to 75% of one-on-one sitters with continuous monitoring.

After the virtual sitting phase, organizations often progress to virtual nursing. This may take the form of either of two effective models. First, the clinical resource model uses virtual nurses to handle documentation and provide frontline staff more time for direct patient care.

Second, the expert oversight model leverages experienced virtual nurses to oversee a group of complex patients while also delivering clinical insight and mentorship to nursing staff. At each phase, virtual nursing can remain cost-neutral by rolling ROI over from one phase to the next.

Q. 74% of hospital leaders believe virtual care is or will become integral to care delivery models in acute inpatient care, up from 66% in last year’s survey. 74% is much larger than the 46% with programs running. What do these other executives see that is so promising to them?

A. Healthcare executives across the spectrum understand the promise of virtual nursing revolves around transforming the way care is delivered to make it more accessible, efficient and patient-centered. These leaders see virtual care as a catalyst to expand access to specialty care, decrease staffing costs, improve nurse well-being and improve patient safety.

Here are two real-world examples.

Virtual sitting saved St. Luke’s Duluth $1.5 million in 2023, maintained fall reduction goals, and decreased staffing costs. The program helps the hospital optimize staff efficiency by offloading routine observational tasks to virtual sitters to enable clinical workers to focus on other critical aspects of patient care.

And, researchers surveyed 74 nurses from Renton, Washington-based Providence and found virtual sitting improved their “emotional labor” and “emotional exhaustion” over in-person sitting. The survey illustrated virtual sitting improves the well-being of nurses and helps maintain patient safety.

Q. What does your survey reveal leaders consider to be the leading use cases for virtual nursing? And why do you think these are the top areas?

A. Our survey revealed that providers use virtual care to solve their most pressing problems. As such, the top use cases for virtual care are virtual sitting (39%) and offloading documentation, especially patient discharge and admissions.

First off, it’s no surprise virtual sitting is the top use case. It equips trained, non-licensed safety attendants to use video and audio connections to watch over multiple patients and improve overall safety, which makes it a natural starting point.

Virtual safety observation is proven to drive better patient outcomes – often a 50% reduction in falls across the organization. In addition to reducing patient falls, the solution reduces tube/line interferences and ensures staff safety from potential patient aggression. Virtual sitting has been proven to drive immediate and measurable ROI for hospitals.

Second, virtual technology plays a significant role in expediting patient discharge in hospitals; this is achieved through streamlining processes, enhancing communication and improving access to care. Nurses and care managers can use virtual platforms to educate patients and caregivers on discharge instructions, reducing the need for in-person meetings and allowing for more flexibility.

Virtual tools connect hospital staff with external care providers in real time, ensuring smooth transitions and avoiding delays in securing post-discharge services. Virtual technology automates documentation and discharge paperwork to enable faster processing of necessary forms.

Lastly, expert virtual nurses can provide clinical surveillance of high-acuity patients, both in the ICUs and in med/surg settings. They can respond to triggers from their electronic health record and oversee patients during the critical few hours after a rapid response call, ensuring expert care is provided in a comprehensive and timely manner.

At the same time, virtual nurses may provide real-time mentorship and confidence to more novice bedside nurses, thereby nurturing a nursing workforce for the future.

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See the article on HealthcareIT News

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

Virtual Care Insight Survey Report

Posted on December 9, 2024 by - Featured

2024 Virtual Care Survey Report

While most IT and clinical leaders believe that inpatient acute virtual care will play an increasingly significant role in care delivery, the reality is that it is still in the early stages of adoption. Survey data reveals a surprising gap: 29% of organizations have no virtual care programs, even as hospital leaders rank it as a top priority. 

To help organizations bridge this gap, the 5-stage Inpatient Virtual Care Maturity Model offers a comprehensive blueprint for care model redesign, empowering leaders to drive change management and implement manageable, outcome-focused strategies.

What stage is your organization? Download the report to learn:

  • Where hospitals currently stand in virtual care maturity
  • How virtual care is reducing the burden on bedside staff
  • The key metrics hospitals use to measure virtual care program success
  • The 5-Stage Inpatient Virtual Care Maturity Model 

Survey: Despite Progress in Virtual Nursing Adoption, Most Providers Remain in Early Stages

Posted on December 3, 2024 by - Featured

AvaSure report and webinar detail top use cases and best practices for virtual care programs

BELMONT, Mich., Dec. 3, 2024 — AvaSure, a market leader in acute virtual care, today announced the results of a primary market research survey that revealed that, while inpatient virtual care is growing, most health systems remain in the early stages of adoption.

In 2024, just 10% of hospital leaders and 14% of hospital IT leaders have reached the phase where inpatient virtual care is a standard part of care delivery. In both groups, 30% reported no inpatient virtual care.

At the same time, despite the slow march toward virtual care maturity, 74% of hospital leaders believe inpatient virtual care is or will become integral to care delivery models in acute inpatient care, up from 66% in last year’s survey. 

Other highlights from the survey include: 

  • In 2024, only 46% of hospital leaders are piloting or have implemented virtual care for inpatient acute care, but that number has grown from 38% a year ago.
  • Hospital leaders view virtual sitting (39%), patient discharge (33%), and admission documentation support (32%) as the leading use cases for virtual care.
  • Hospital leaders’ most-frequently cited metrics to measure the success of virtual care programs include patient safety (58%), patient experience (53%), workload burden for current staff (48%), patient outcomes (48%), throughput or patient flow (43%), nurse retention (32%), workforce costs (26%), nurse safety (25%). For IT leaders, the top metric was improving nurse satisfaction and retention.

“These survey results demonstrate that, even as the nursing shortage has gone from acute to chronic, interest in virtual care continues to gain momentum among hospital leaders, both clinical and IT,” said Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, chief clinical officer, AvaSure. “Most providers are still in the early exploration phase, the second level of the 5-step Inpatient Virtual Care Maturity Model. Our 5-stage approach serves as a roadmap for care model transformation by executives who are change-management oriented and outcome-focused.”

“Virtual care is becoming essential to delivering high-quality, accessible patient care that reduces the burden on bedside staff,” said Claire Zangerle, DNP, R.N., CEO, American Organization for Nursing Leadership, American Hospital Association. “However, achieving true impact requires more than just adopting the technology—it demands setting clear goals and taking deliberate steps to mature these programs. By focusing on the right processes and support systems, hospitals can ensure that virtual care not only eases the burden on caregivers but also enhances patient outcomes and experience.”

The full survey report will be shared with those who attend the AvaSure webinar on the 5-stage inpatient virtual care maturity model to be co-presented by Votruba and Zangerle. Click here to register. 

About the survey
The Inpatient Virtual Care Insight Survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Joslin Insight on behalf of AvaSure between September 19 and October 7, 2024. The survey received responses from 340 healthcare professionals primarily working in acute care settings. At least 30% were nurse leaders or key decision-makers (collectively referred to as hospital leaders). For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +5.3 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.

To complement the nurse survey, AvaSure gathered insights from 29 hospital IT leaders (mostly CIOs) regarding Inpatient Virtual Care Adoption.


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:
Marcia G. Rhodes for AvaSure; mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com

UCHealth’s virtual health center: How Colorado’s largest health system creates and integrates technology into patient care

Posted on November 20, 2024 by - Uncategorized

UCHealth’s virtual health center: How Colorado’s largest health system creates and integrates technology into patient care
Goldberg, E., Kao, D., Kwan, B. et al.  npj Digit. Med. 7, 187 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-024-01184-8

In the face of formidable healthcare challenges, such as staffing shortages and rising costs, technology has emerged as a crucial ally in enhancing patient care. UCHealth, Colorado’s largest health system, has pioneered the integration of technology into patient care through its Virtual Health Center (VHC). In this Comment, we explore UCHealth’s journey in creating a centralized hub that harnesses innovative digital health solutions to address patient care needs across its 12 hospitals, spanning over 600,000 emergency department visits and nearly 150,000 inpatient and observation encounters annually. The VHC has proven to be a transformative force, providing high-quality care at scale, reducing staff burden, and establishing new career pathways in virtual health.

The transformation process involved multiple steps:

  • Identifying a need
  • Vetting within health system solutions
  • Searching for industry solutions, and scrutinizing these through meetings with our innovations center
  • Piloting the solution
  • Sustaining the solution by integrating them within the electronic health record (EHR)

A Pathway to Zero Falls: Protecting veterans from preventable harm

Posted on September 17, 2024 by - Featured

Falls remain a persistent and costly issue among hospitalized veterans, who are at a higher risk due to more prevalent chronic conditions. In response, the Veterans Health Administration introduced the SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act in 2024, creating an Office of Falls Prevention. Staffing shortages, particularly among Patient Care Technicians and Certified Nursing Assistants have exacerbated patient safety concerns, with patient falls rising 253% from 2020 to 2022.

To reduce the need for 1:1 sitters and improve safety, AvaSure’s AI-powered virtual care platform enables hospitals to remotely monitor high-risk patients and prevent falls and other adverses events.

Download the guide to learn:

  • How to reduce falls by nearly 20%
  • Ways to improve staff efficiency & satisfaction
  • The top 4 adverse events prevented in VA hospitals