Survey: Despite Progress in Virtual Nursing Adoption, Most Providers Remain in Early Stages

AvaSure report and webinar detail top use cases and best practices for virtual care programs

BELMONT, Mich., Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- AvaSure, a market leader in acute virtual care, today announced the results of a primary market research survey that revealed that, while inpatient virtual care is growing, most health systems remain in the early stages of adoption.

In 2024, only 10 percent of hospital leaders and 14 percent of hospital IT leaders have reached the phase where inpatient virtual care is a standard part of care delivery. In both groups, 30 percent reported no inpatient virtual care.

At the same time, despite the slow march toward virtual care maturity, 74 percent of hospital leaders believe inpatient virtual care is, or will become, integral to care delivery models in acute inpatient care—up from 66 percent in last year's survey.

Other highlights from the survey include:

• In 2024, only 46 percent of hospital leaders are piloting or have implemented virtual care for inpatient acute care, albeit that number has grown from 38 percent a year ago.
• Hospital leaders view virtual sitting (39 percent), patient discharge (33 percent), and admission documentation support (32 percent) as the leading use cases for virtual care.
• Hospital leaders' most-frequently cited metrics to measure the success of virtual care programs include patient safety (58 percent), patient experience (53 percent), workload burden for current staff (48 percent), patient outcomes (48 percent), throughput or patient flow (43 percent), nurse retention (32 percent), workforce costs (26 percent), nurse safety (25 percent). For IT leaders, the top metric was improving nurse satisfaction and retention.

"These survey results demonstrate that, even as the nursing shortage has gone from acute to chronic, interest in virtual care continues to gain momentum among hospital leaders, both clinical and IT," said Lisbeth Votruba, MSN, RN, Chief Clinical Officer, AvaSure. "Most providers are still in the early exploration phase, the second level of the 5-step Inpatient Virtual Care Maturity Model. Our 5-stage approach serves as a roadmap for care model transformation by executives who are change-management oriented and outcome-focused."

"Virtual care is becoming essential to delivering high-quality, accessible patient care that reduces the burden on bedside staff," said Claire Zangerle, DNP, R.N., CEO of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership at the American Hospital Association. "However, achieving true impact requires more than just adopting the technology—it demands setting clear goals and taking deliberate steps to mature these programs. By focusing on the right processes and support systems, hospitals can ensure that virtual care not only eases the burden on caregivers but also enhances patient outcomes and experience."

The full survey report will be shared with those who attend the AvaSure webinar on the 5-stage inpatient virtual care maturity model to be co-presented by Votruba and Zangerle. Register for the webinar here.

About the survey

The Inpatient Virtual Care Insight Survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Joslin Insight on behalf of AvaSure between September 19 and October 7, 2024. The survey received responses from 340 healthcare professionals primarily working in acute care settings. At least 30 percent were nurse leaders or key decision-makers (collectively referred to as 'hospital leaders'). For this study, the sample data is accurate to within plus or minus 5.3 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

To complement the nurse survey, AvaSure gathered insights from 29 hospital IT leaders (mostly CIOs) regarding Inpatient Virtual Care Adoption.

About AvaSure

AvaSure® is an intelligent virtual care platform that healthcare providers use to engage with patients, optimize staffing, and seamlessly blend remote and in-person care at scale. The platform deploys AI-powered virtual sitting and virtual nursing solutions, meets the highest enterprise IT standards, and drives measurable outcomes with support from care experts. AvaSure consistently delivers a 6x ROI and has been recognized by KLAS Research as the #1 solution for reducing the cost of care. With a team of 15 percent nurses, AvaSure is a trusted partner of 1,100+ hospitals with experience in over 5,000 deployments. To learn more, visit www.avasure.com.

Media contact:
Marcia G. Rhodes
Amendola for AvaSure
[email protected]

SOURCE AvaSure