Virtual nursing saves hospitals money on turnover costs, says Ardent Health CMO

Nowadays, hospitals can no longer afford to neglect the improvement in the workflow, according to FJ Campbell, chief doctor of Ardent Health.

He underlined this during an interview last month at La Reuters Digital Health Conference in Nashville, noting that the pandemic stressed how the hospital workflows can be overwhelming. The fragmented and heavy nature of these workflows has led to high levels of exhaustion and turnover of the personnel, as well as an unbearable dependence on contractual workforce, explained Campbell.

“We had to be in a situation where we could better recruit and keep the staff we had. And a large part of the message on their part was being summed up:” What can you do to improve my workflow burden? “” He said.

In the opinion of Campbell, virtual nursing technology was one of the most impactful tools that have advanced efforts to improve the ardent workflow.

By implementing the technological infrastructure for virtual nurses, ardently discharges routine and cognitive taxation of nurses on site. Campbell said that this team -based model has increased efficiency and has allowed a clearer delimitation of roles. Virtual nurses take care of tasks such as discharges, collecting the history of patients and the hourly rounding, and nurses who are physically present in the unit have more time to do things like monitoring patients or prepare them for imaging tests.

“”[On-site RNs] Spend more time concentrating on the patient care plan and monitoring patients who cross the continuum of care – who loses in the field or deteriorates, who improves, who can have an earlier exit. They have more time for this surveillance, ”said Campbell.

The arurses of ardent seem to appreciate this reduction in the cognitive burden. Since the implementation of virtual nursing technology, the nursing rate of nurses in the health system has increased from 15.5% to 9.5%, Campbell said.

This could result in significant long-term cost savings, since the average cost of recruiting a nurse is $ 40,000, he added.

“If you are a nurse, what it meant:” I am less stressed at work, I have a lunch and I go on time “. And that is why we think it is so durable – because they are less exhausted at work, ”said Campbell.

Success with virtual nursing has also led to extended virtual consultations with specialized doctors, such as cardiologists, nephrologists and neurologists, in rural hospitals.

Campbell noted that these virtual consultations reduce unnecessary transfers in tertiary centers by 85%, as well as the increase in the level of care of care to which patients can access in rural facilities.

“The patients appreciated the fact that they finally received care in their community, compared to the rise up to an hour in a tertiary care center to which they do not want to go,” he said.

While continuously continues to put its virtual care strategy on the scale, Campbell said the objective remains the same: the softening of the cognitive burden of clinicians while offering patients access to care they deserve.

Photo: Sdecoret, Getty Images