TTA has an open invitation to industry leaders to contribute to our Perspectives non-promotional opinion and thought leadership area. Today’s contribution is from Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, CAVRN, the Chief Clinical Officer for AvaSure. She is a pioneering nurse executive committed to continuous improvement of healthcare and the diffusion of new technologies to drive patient and staff safety. Her Master of Science in Nursing is from Columbia University School of Nursing. In this article, Ms. Votruba reviews the state of virtual nursing in US health systems and how they can progress into a system-wide strategy for integrating virtual care into widespread clinical use. AvaSure is an intelligent virtual care platform that deploys AI-powered virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions and is a trusted partner of 1,100+ hospitals with experience in over 5,000 deployments.
Looking at healthcare news headlines, one might think inpatient virtual care is ubiquitous and everyone else is saving millions of dollars through virtual nursing. Or one might get the impression the nursing shortage is over because AI is easing administrative strain. It turns out the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
A new survey reveals that most health systems remain in the early stages of virtual nursing adoption in acute care settings. In 2024, just 10% of hospital leaders and 14% of IT leaders have reached the phase where virtual care is a standard part of care delivery. In both groups, 30% reported no virtual care.
Those were among the major takeaways from two recent surveys of 369 hospital clinical and information technology leaders on the topic of inpatient virtual care.
Over the last year and a half, hospital leaders grew more firmly committed to the concept of virtual nursing with those believing it will be an integral part of care delivery, growing from 66% to 74%. However, as of October 2024, one out of three respondents had yet to implement virtual care in any inpatient department.
Progressing through the early stages of virtual care
Based on survey results and firsthand observation, most providers are still in the early exploration phase, which is stage 2 of the 5-stage Inpatient Virtual Care Maturity Model (see graphic). The 5-stage process represents a blueprint for care model redesign led by change-management-oriented, outcome-focused leaders.
Few survey respondents have progressed to stage 3, strategic advancement, in which providers establish infrastructure and advance virtual care use for admission, discharge, education, mentoring, and rounding. None has advanced to stage 5, mature virtual care, which is characterized by full integration of virtual care with an emphasis on optimizing workflows, operational efficiency, and outcomes.
Key survey findings
Despite these slow steps toward inpatient virtual care maturity, the annual survey revealed that:
- 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.
- Hospital leaders continue to prioritize virtual nursing, with an average ranking of 6.2 on a prioritization scale of 1 to 10. Among health IT leaders, the average ranking was 6.
- 46% of hospital leaders are piloting or have implemented virtual care for inpatient acute care, up from 38% a year ago.
Virtual care use cases and metrics
Hospital leaders consider the top use cases for virtual care to be virtual sitting (39%), patient discharge (33%), admission documentation support (32%), high-acuity monitoring (18%), patient education (18%), and virtual consults (18%).
Survey respondents’ most frequently cited metrics to measure the success of virtual care programs include patient safety, patient experience, workload burden for staff, patient outcomes, patient flow, nurse retention, workforce costs, and nurse safety, satisfaction and retention.
The use of virtual care solutions to reduce burnout among nurses and other clinicians is consistent with the US Surgeon General’s advisory on building a thriving health workforce. Researchers estimate that annual burnout-related turnover costs are $9 billion for nurses.
The path to virtual care maturity requires not just investing in new technology; it also requires organizational alignment, solid 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 sitting and virtual nursing could be a critical step towards accelerating virtual care maturity. However, making a significant difference requires more than just adopting technology; it also calls for establishing specific objectives and taking deliberate steps to build these initiatives.
About the survey:
The 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). This study’s sample data is accurate to within +5.3 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.
To complement the survey of hospital leaders, AvaSure gathered insights from 29 hospital IT leaders (mostly CIOs) regarding Inpatient Virtual Care Adoption.
The full survey report is available for download here: https://avasure.com/resource/2024-virtual-care-insight-survey-report/
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