Health systems are deploying virtual clinicians into their skilled nursing facilities to improve patient outcomes and reduce readmissions.
Nurses working remotely are assisting staff at the facilities by monitoring at-risk patients for falls, providing backup support after hours and keeping an eye out for medication errors and other problems that can crop up during patient transitions from hospitals to nursing homes.
Virtual nursing has been embraced within hospitals and it’s a strategy that could ease staffing shortages and increase admissions at nursing homes. However, many of those operators lack the financial resources to support the necessary technology, said Fred Bentley, a consultant to post-acute care providers at healthcare advisory firm ATI Advisory. Some nursing home operators also are wary about the benefits of remote nurses.
Last month, Sanford Health launched virtual care services at 27 nursing homes and assisted living facilities it operates under its Good Samaritan subsidiary in South Dakota. The My Care Line program is part of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based health system’s $350 million virtual care initiative.
Nurses are on call evenings, weekends and overnight to support nursing home staff via phone or video, said Dee Andra Sandgren, Good Samaritan’s chief nursing officer. The nurses answer staff questions and make patient assessments through a telehealth platform, supplemented with handheld diagnostic equipment, when a nurse isn’t onsite.
Sandgren said the primary goal of the program is to prevent unnecessary emergency room visits.
“So often when you have after-hours calls in a rural community, there might only be one provider [on call],” Sandgren said. “If we are calling and interrupting them multiple times, the instinct might be to send patients to the emergency room to get checked out.”
Sanford had the necessary technology and hired five virtual nurses to monitor its post-acute facilities, Sangren said. The health system hopes to eventually roll out the program to all 150 Good Samaritan nursing homes, assisted living and memory care facilities, Sandgren said.
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