Virtual Nursing
Many healthcare organizations are experiencing persistent nursing workforce shortages, leading to suboptimal patient experiences and clinical outcomes.
Minimizing the burden on the care team and preventing further attrition or outmigration from the industry is a top priority. One way to help address this challenge is through the implementation of Virtual Nursing.
Virtual Nursing
Many healthcare organizations are experiencing persistent nursing workforce shortages, leading to suboptimal patient experiences and clinical outcomes.
Minimizing the burden on the care team and preventing further attrition or outmigration from the industry is a top priority. One way to help address this challenge is through the implementation of Virtual Nursing.
Addressing the Talent Challenge
InsightIQ’s remote monitoring capabilities supports and enables Virtual Nurses to augment the bedside care team by:
- Monitoring patient trends and alerts for signs of deterioration and to initiate early interventions
- Assisting clinicians to make better informed decisions and reducing errors of omission by highlighting relevant data that might otherwise be overlooked.
- Mitigating workforce issues including nurse burnout, high turnover, and reliance on contract nurses.
- Improving Patient Safety and the Quality of Care by reducing bounce backs and length of stay days both of which improve better outcomes for CMS reporting.
Addressing the Talent Challenge
InsightIQ’s remote monitoring capabilities supports and enables Virtual Nurses to augment the bedside care team by:
- Monitoring patient trends and alerts for signs of deterioration and to initiate early interventions
- Assisting clinicians to make better informed decisions and reducing errors of omission by highlighting relevant data that might otherwise be overlooked.
- Mitigating workforce issues including nurse burnout, high turnover, and reliance on contract nurses.
- Improving Patient Safety and the Quality of Care by reducing bounce backs and length of stay days both of which improve better outcomes for CMS reporting.
Virtual Nursing Models of Care
Virtual nursing complement and augment the bedside nursing team, performing nursing tasks that do not require a physical presence. The virtual nursing unit can be centralized, with nurses co-located in a central command center; or distributed, with nurses working remotely (for example, from home); or hybrid, a combination of centralized and distributed.
Common tasks performed by virtual nurses can include:
- Monitoring patients from offices, homes, or other locations to support or train bedside staff.
- Assisting or performing Medication reconciliation
- Initiating interdisciplinary plans of care
- Facilitating discharge processes including resolving barriers to discharge, organizing patient transport and completing documentation
- Assisting with Rapid Response and code blue support
- Coordinating procedures and care
- Providing “Second” RN sign off (e.g., medication administration, blood administration)
- Mentoring new graduate bedside nurses
- Chart auditing for missing documentation, redundant testing, and compliance with Core Measures and Clinical Quality Measures
The Power of InsightIQ™
Digitized Protocols and Dashboards Across the Care Spectrum
Monitor Patients Across Multiple Care Areas or Facilities
Using the Multi-Unit view, virtual nurses can continuously surveil the patient population. Patients can be sorted by selected care area (ICU, ED, floor, etc.); or by type of protocol (Vent, Sepsis, AKI, etc.) – with a focus on early intervention when trends identified
Color coding of Patient Beds identify patients who may require intervention – based on your Hospital’s digitized clinical guidelines.
Specific Unit Surveillance View
InsightIQ allows monitoring across specific units, providing situational awareness at-a-glance with the identification of patients in most need of immediate intervention
Additionally, virtual nurses can monitor ongoing protocol compliance ensuring improved Outcomes and Quality of care driving better Hospital performance for CMS reporting purposes
Monitoring Patients for Rapid Response
Virtual nurses and Rapid Response Teams (RRT) can track patients across all care areas within your facility or multiple facilities – accessible from anywhere (office, designated command center, etc)
- InsightIQ provides specialized monitoring for patients and proactively identifies those who might be at risk of decompensation via the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) *scoring system configurable to hospital.
- Adjusting the “Score Threshold” displays only those patients with that score the hospital selected threshold or higher – allowing virtual nurses to triage and proactively engage bedside clinicians as appropriate.
At-a-Glance Updates For Nursing Protocols
From the Unit View a virtual nurse can quickly review specific items of interest
- Unit assessment of lines/tubes and drains
- Potential Sepsis indicators,
- Ventilator settings that could lead to Associated Pneumonias,
- Indicators due to indwelling catheter duration and care of, that could lead to a CAUTI,
- Potential blood infection (CLABSI) due to Central Line continuation, care of and location
- Lab value changes that are trending in the wrong direction, etc.
Ensuring Compliance to Protocols – The Patient View
From any Unit View, a virtual nurse can select a specific patient for deeper review. All Patient View dashboards provide patient-specific situational awareness at-a-glance and helps clinicians prioritize attention to the most critical indicators.
This Patient View displays continuous clinical data including:
- Current vital signs, clinical trends, latest lab results, and protocol status & compliance
- Continuously updated score calculations (SOFA, Sepsis Screen, etc.)
- Digitized protocols with actionable insights and compliance status (AKI and VAP prevention, CAUTI prevention, etc.)
Insights within the Visual Workflow – Clinical Care Checklists
Managing certain conditions, e.g., sepsis, is made easier with the display of checklists or task listings
The EGDT checklist (and all checklists) will indicate when tasks have been completed (ordered, administered) and those still outstanding – improving communication throughout the day and during shift changes.
Providing Situational Awareness at a Glance – The Fluid Balance View
InsightIQ provides configurable dashboards that displays data as appropriate for a specific unit which can include the patient’s daily Fluid balance.
Typically a manual process, the trending and display of Urine Output is automated. Measuring hourly urine output and correlating with lab values and administered medications in a single screen can help the care team detect early signs of organ failure.
Organizations have shown positive results with virtual nursing
- Increased Productivity – Reduction of manual tasks, the data overload burden and turnover amongst bedside care team members.
- Improved Communication – especially during shift changes or virtual consults.
- Better Resource Allocation – Allowing bedside nurses to focus on at risk patients and reducing the need for higher levels of acute care.
- Improved support for bedside nurses – reducing the documentation burden for bedside nurses; and assisting with discharge planning and other clinical documentation.
- Reduced rates of adverse events – (e.g., VAP, CAUTI, CLABSI, cardiac arrests, and others
- Improved nursing staff retention and job satisfaction – extending the nursing career for more experienced nurses whose knowledge is priceless; attracting new staff through more flexible working conditions and a different type of work.
