Adapting Virtual Nursing Programs to Fit Changing Organizational Requirements in ATA2023
In the rapidly evolving landscape of healthcare, virtual nursing is making a significant impact, leveraging technology to enhance patient care and address workforce challenges.
One pioneer in this field is Houston Methodist, which has rolled out a virtual nursing solution to 20 units, notching over 20,000 patient encounters in less than a year. The inpatient clinical director for virtual medicine at Houston Methodist, Steve Klahn, underscores the importance of using existing technology for virtual nursing implementation.
The approach at Houston Methodist involves a hybrid workforce, blending traditional bedside care with virtual capabilities. This strategy helps extend the career of experienced nurses while improving the efficiency of novice practitioners. Meanwhile, at Mary Washington Healthcare's Stafford Hospital, Debra Marinari proposed in-patient virtual support to mitigate high nurse turnover rates, a lack of staff engagement, and high labor costs. Marinari's solution includes the use of cameras in patient rooms and a virtual command center staffed by a dedicated team of virtual nurses.
Virtual nursing offers several key benefits. It facilitates virtual visits and remote consults, connecting care teams and families while enabling 1:1 remote consults for admissions and patient education. AI-enabled virtual observation helps prevent falls and improve safety. Standardized workflows, such as virtual rooming, improve healthcare maintenance during telemedicine visits.
To measure the effectiveness of virtual nursing, healthcare organizations use several key metrics. These include patient satisfaction and engagement, cost savings and efficiency, quality of care, staff retention and development, and technology uptake and integration. The virtual command center at Houston Methodist, for instance, will measure nurse engagement, patient satisfaction, the rate of nurse turnover, quality and safety metrics, and readmissions to evaluate the effectiveness of the virtual nursing program.
Dr. Troy Leo, a healthcare leader, emphasizes that virtual nursing should not be used to change nursing ratios, but as a tool to offload burdens on bedside nurses. Dr. Sarah Pletcher, system vice president and executive medical director for strategic innovation at Houston Methodist, stresses the importance of learning from both successes and failures in healthcare innovation. Aroub Khleif, administrative director of innovation at Houston Methodist, underscores the need for a unified, team-based approach to break down silos during virtual nursing implementation.
Mary Washington Healthcare, a Virginia health system, is preparing for a virtual nursing rollout, partnering with Caregility to deploy an in-patient virtual engagement solution. Healthcare organizations are implementing data-driven insights and an agile approach to launch new programs, such as virtual nursing.
Integration with a language service vendor for virtual nursing was achieved in a two-day turnaround at Houston Methodist, addressing the need for multilingual patient care. However, initial attempts at implementing virtual nursing, such as Marinari's proof of concept for one nursing unit using Apple iPad devices, faced nurse frustrations with workflows and lack of buy-in.
Some panelists at the ATA2023 conference challenged the idea that a virtual nursing solution works best with a centralized command center, suggesting that nurses could work remotely from their homes. At the 2023 American Telemedicine Association Conference and Expo, healthcare experts discussed virtual nursing, their experiences setting up a program, and key metrics for improvement.
Virtual nursing is a program designed to address high turnover rates, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, by providing support for newer nurses and retaining valuable staff. As more healthcare organizations adopt this innovative approach, it's clear that virtual nursing is gaining popularity among healthcare organizations across the country to improve staff satisfaction and enhance patient care.
- The hybrid workforce approach at Houston Methodist, incorporating both traditional bedside care and virtual capabilities, aims to extend the career of experienced nurses and improve the efficiency of novice practitioners in the field of virtual nursing.
- Maria Washington Healthcare's Stafford Hospital proposed in-patient virtual support to alleviate high nurse turnover rates, reduced staff engagement, and high labor costs, using cameras in patient rooms and a virtual command center staffed by a dedicated team of virtual nurses.
- Standardized workflows, such as virtual rooming, and AI-enabled virtual observation help improve healthcare maintenance during telemedicine visits, prevent falls, and ensure patient safety in the realm of virtual nursing.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual nursing programs, healthcare organizations use various key metrics, including patient satisfaction and engagement, cost savings and efficiency, quality of care, staff retention and development, technology uptake and integration, and focused metrics like nurse engagement, patient satisfaction, and nurse turnover rates.
