UMass Memorial Health Sees Growing Potential
The explosive growth of telehealth triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health to establish a virtual patient observation program, says David Smith, the health system’s associate vice president for virtual medicine.
“We had been working with Caregility to use mobile video carts to maintain patient care as we closed down in-person services during the pandemic and needed to move virtual medicine into the hospital setting,” Smith says. “As the COVID-19 surge subsided, we looked to repurpose some of the technology. We had discussed virtual monitoring to address staff shortages, and this gave us the tools to bring that program live.”
UMass Memorial Health has taken a measured approach to virtual patient observation. In fall 2020, it began rolling out the program to acute or critical care units in three of its five central Massachusetts campuses, says Debbie Turner, director of applied clinical informatics.
“It’s hard to predict how a patient can be successfully monitored, whether its virtual observation, in-person or checks every 15 minutes,” Turner says. “We have patients who transition on and off virtual observation as their needs change.”
At UMass Memorial Health, three staff members monitor up to 18 patients total, with each having primary responsibility for six patients. Each of these technicians is an experienced personal care assistant who spends part of the week working in person on the hospital floor, getting to know the staff and patients, Turner says.
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From their remote posts, technicians can respond to unusual patient behavior with interventions ranging from just listening to alerting the onsite staff by cellphone. The virtual observation program averages 8,000 interventions a month, Smith adds.
The Wi-Fi-based Caregility carts enable virtual observation at a relatively low cost, but system continuity is a prime consideration, Smith says. UMass Memorial Health is exploring a cellular data connection as an affordable backup during network or application outages.
Smith and Turner agree that starting small and understanding how a virtual observation application will work in the organization’s specific infrastructure is crucial.
The team at UMass Memorial Health initially underestimated the amount of computing power necessary for the program’s video feed and had to replace some desktop hardware. They also worked with Caregility to throttle down the video bandwidth used by the application, Smith says.
UMass Memorial’s virtual patient observation program will continue to grow with strategic deployments for patients who can most benefit, Turner adds. “This is one more tool in our toolbox to help keep patients safe,” she says.
