Jefferson Health is now providing 'virtual' nurses to patients in its hospitals
Jefferson Health is now providing 'virtual' nurses to patients in its hospitals John George
The virtual nurse program is part of Jefferson’s "nursing workforce optimization strategy" that also incudes its nurse emeritus program and nursing SEAL team.
Jefferson Health, the Philadelphia region's largest health system, is now employing virtual nurses who work remotely with bedside nurses to provide individualized patient care at its medical centers.
“The pandemic saw a surge in the use of telemedicine," said Colleen Mallozzi, Jefferson's chief nursing informatics officer. "The virtual nursing model allows us to leverage the use of similar technology to further improve patient care, reduce length of stay and provide additional support to our bedside nurses.”
Under Jefferson's virtual nurse program, patients at the Center City-based health system's 17 hospitals will still be assigned a bedside nurse. Some patients, however, will also have a nurse working remotely to support their care.
The virtual nurses help with patient check-in and rounding (nurse-led patient monitoring) while handling a variety of tasks that include admission and discharge paperwork, patient and family education, care consultation and electronic health record documentation.
Jefferson has installed HIPAA-compliant audio-visual devices in hospital rooms so patients can communicate with virtual nurses much in same manner as making a FaceTime call on an Apple computer or iPhone. The devices do not record conversations or any of the care provided, the health system noted, and patients are still able to use the normal call button to contact a bedside nurse for any urgent need.
“Virtual nurses are not a replacement for bedside nurses, instead they serve as an additional member of the hospital care team," said Laura Gartner, division director for clinical informatics at Jefferson Health. "Bedside nurses and virtual nurses work together to ensure that patients continue to receive the safest and highest quality of care."
During a recent pilot of the program that ran from March to June, virtual nurses interacted with nearly 400 Jefferson patients. The virtual nurses completed more than 100 patient interactions within the first few weeks, according to the health system.
Mallozzi told the Business Journal that Jefferson is finalizing the exact number of virtual nurses it will deploy.
"During the initial pilot, we utilized nurses from our internal float pool," she said. "These individuals worked solely as virtual nurses for the length of the pilot. As we move forward and expand, we will be engaging with clinical nurses on our pilot units to give them the opportunity to work as virtual nurses. We believe that engaging our internal nursing staff will enhance our team-based approach and build trust between the bedside nurse and the virtual nurse. We anticipate having a mix of full-time virtual nurses and unit-based clinical nurses supporting their units.”
Jefferson is also planning to expand the program to include using it for tele-observation/virtual safety care and for provider-to-provider e-consults.
The virtual nurse program is part of Jefferson’s "nursing workforce optimization strategy" that also incudes its nurse emeritus program and nursing SEAL team. The nurse emeritus program was launched systemwide in April to provide experienced, retired nurses with the opportunity to return and work at the patient bedside, as well as support and mentor individual nurses, nursing teams and new leaders at all levels of the organization.
Jefferson last summer launched its nursing SEAL team — an acronym for service, excellence, advocacy and leadership — to provide growth opportunities for nurses by letting them be part of a unit that provides specialty nursing care support across nearly all of Jefferson's acute care locations based on the needs of the health system.
Based in Center City, Jefferson Health has more than 42,000 employees including 9,300 nurses. It is the parent organization for Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, which has five hospital campuses: Einstein Healthcare Network, which has three hospital campuses; Abington-Jefferson Health, which has two; Jefferson Health Northeast, which has three; Jefferson Health New Jersey, which has three; and Magee Rehabilitation Hospital. The health system also has more than 50 outpatient and urgent care locations in the region.