The American Telehealth Association (ATA) Nexus 2024 conference provided a pivotal opportunity for healthcare leaders and innovators to discuss the evolving landscape of telehealth and virtual care. Understanding innovations and challenges in this field is essential for anyone considering the benefits these technologies offer for augmenting patient safety and improving outcomes.
As the Chief Nursing Officer of Collette Health, a leading virtual care provider, I am deeply involved in patient safety and clinical operations and found the discussions at ATA Nexus 2024 particularly enlightening. Here, I share my key takeaways, focusing on how virtual care can address current challenges, the legislative hurdles we face, and the need for clear definitions and strategic partnerships.
The Growing Role of Virtual Care in Addressing Workforce Shortages
Virtual care continues to be a hot topic within the telehealth community. As an important subset of telehealth, it offers a promising solution to workforce shortages and workflow issues. By leveraging virtual care, healthcare systems can ensure their staff operates at the top of their expertise, which is crucial during these challenging times.
Virtual care solutions play an important role in bridging the gap caused by workforce shortages by:
- Enhancing patient oversight. By leveraging the virtual observer resource, nurses extend their reach for patients requiring heightened levels of monitoring to ensure their safety. The “extra set of eyes” that virtual observers offer enable a nurse to feel secure in the knowledge that their at-risk patients are closely monitored for safety when they need to leave the room. Allowing nurses and clinicians to monitor patients remotely, reducing the need for physical presence. This can improve the productivity of in-person time spent at the patient bedside and reduce the overall workload by reducing the need for in-person interventions.
- Streamlining nursing workflows. Nurses have greater capacity for proactive care and the opportunity to complete their planned activities with each patient before with fewer unplanned interruptions from patients requiring increased oversight.
- Streamlining workflows for the virtual observer through automated documentation and advanced patient monitoring systems. Reducing documentation time and having human-centered AI technology support enables the observers to maintain their attention on the patients they are observing
- Enabling more efficient allocation of staff to high-need areas, enhancing overall patient care quality. Frequently, nursing assistants and other clinical staff are pulled from staffing to sit with at-risk patients, which reduces the overall staffing resources on the unit. Virtual observers mitigate that issue, enabling the clinical staff to manage full assignments.
By integrating virtual care into the care delivery model, healthcare facilities can mitigate staffing issues and improve operational efficiency by maintaining efficiency of their existing resources, ensuring better outcomes for patients.
Legislative Concerns for Telehealth Services
One of the significant concerns discussed at ATA Nexus 2024 was the potential expiration of COVID-era measures that support reimbursement for telehealth services. There is a possibility that these measures, which were introduced during the pandemic, could expire if Congress fails to act.
If these measures lapse, this would signal a potentially catastrophic setback for virtual care services. The loss of reimbursement would create a substantial barrier for healthcare providers, This would likely impact future adoption of less expensive telehealth services, limiting access to care for many in underserved areas. It’s essential for stakeholders to advocate for the extension of these measures to ensure the continued growth and adoption of virtual care.
The Struggle to Define Virtual Nursing and Virtual Observation
Despite the interest in virtual nursing and virtual observation, some confusion exists regarding these terms. The term “virtual nursing” is generally used to encompass skilled nursing activities, as defined by licensure, that is conducted virtually, while the term “virtual observation” defines the continuous monitoring of patients using digital tools. Both services play an important and at times, complementary role in the evolving healthcare delivery ecosystem.
Establishing clear definitions and guidelines is crucial for integrating virtual observation services into patient care workflows. A comprehensive implementation plan that starts with helping the staff understand why the virtual observation program is being implemented, and what this will do for them and their patients, prior to launching into training for how to use the services. This is a pivotal leadership function to guide the clinical workforce successfully through the change management process. ,
The Necessity for Strategic Partnerships
Implementing virtual care services successfully can be both complex and nuanced for healthcare systems. Healthcare leaders at ATA Nexus 2024 were increasingly looking for partners who offer not just solutions, but also operational plans and strategies for streamlined implementation. Successful partnerships are vital for the smooth integration of new technologies into existing workflows.
Effective partnerships should:
- Provide customized guidance and resources to leaders responsible for program implementation based upon an assessment of their department’s state of readiness.
- Support a comprehensive training strategy for healthcare staff that begins with raising awareness of the need for the desired change, and what it will do for them and their patients.
- Include detailed implementation and maintenance plans to minimize resource strain.
- Ensure ongoing support and updates to keep the technology and services aligned with the evolving needs of the organization. .
The right strategic partner will provide both the necessary technological tools and collaborative resources during both the implementation and maintenance of the new virtual care approach. By forming an effective partnership, healthcare systems can adopt new technologies more efficiently, ultimately enhancing patient safety and care quality.
Collette Health’s Approach
At Collette Health, we understand the importance of providing not only technologically advanced solutions but also the robust operational strategies needed to improve outcomes for healthcare systems and the patients they serve. Our human-centered AI technologies are designed to integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, minimizing disruption and maximizing efficiency.
Our solution is a proactive, 24/7 remote patient observation technology that leverages the benefits of human-centered AI to prevent patient injuries and improve healthcare systems’ resource allocation. We collaborate closely with healthcare providers to tailor our technologies to their specific needs, ensuring optimal results.
Conclusion
These insights from ATA Nexus 2024 underscore the critical role of virtual care in addressing contemporary and emerging healthcare challenges. As we navigate legislative uncertainties and strive for clearer definitions of virtual services, the need for a reliable, strategic partner becomes increasingly evident.
At Collette Health, we are committed to providing solutions and support that drive positive patient outcomes. To learn more about our approach and see how it can benefit your organization, I encourage you to schedule a demo with us. Together, we can enhance patient safety and care quality through innovative virtual care solutions.