Texas Health is piloting a program to use virtual patient companions to help protect the safety of hospital patients at risk of falling. This is a new capability for Texas Health with a centralized monitoring component but has been used in several units at our hospitals for many years.
“We know that patient falls are one of the most common and harmful events in a care setting, said Mae Centeno, D.N.P., APRN, ACNS-BC, chief nursing officer, Virtual Care. “Traditionally, one-on-one in-person sitters are assigned to patients to prevent falls, but that is just not a sustainable model.”
The virtual patient companions will monitor multiple patients from the Medical Command Center on the campus of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Centeno said. The system will allow them to call into the patient’s room or, if the bed alarm is activated, speak directly to the patient via two-way audio.
“Additionally, the care team at the nursing unit will be alerted to go into the patient’s room and determine if any additional intervention is needed,” Centeno said.
The portable cameras can be moved from room to room as needed. Behavioral Health patients at risk of suicide or self-harm will still be monitored in person.
Increasing patient safety is the goal, said Kathi Cox, chief operating officer, Ambulatory and Virtual Channel.
“Virtual patient monitoring has the capability to improve patient safety while enabling our hospitals to more efficiently allocate clinical resources without sacrificing the essential human element of patient care,” Cox said. “It provides an opportunity to help our patients 24/7 and allows our clinical staff at the bedside to operate at the top of their license.”
The virtual companions will help hospitals move resources to where they’re most needed, said Mary Robinson, Ph.D., R.N., NEA-BC, Reliable Health chief nursing officer.
“Sitters have been the traditional way to address fall risk for some patients, and sitter utilization is high at Texas Health hospitals,” Robinson said. “The plan is to decrease the need for in-person sitters and ultimately get those sitter resources back into other areas of patient care that can be impacted when caregivers have to be placed at one patient’s bedside to assist with that patient’s safety. This is an exciting new approach to centralizing resources to assist the nursing team providing care in our hospitals.”
Virtual patient companions can monitor 16 to 20 patients at a time, alerting the hospital unit while providing verbal coaching to patients attempting to get out of bed. But they won’t be just a stranger’s voice in the night.
“Staff will first explain the program to the patient and family,” Centeno said. “They’ll be introduced to the virtual patient companion on video, so they’ll know who the person is. And we want to make sure we reassure them that we can turn on privacy mode anytime they’re going to the bathroom, talking to their doctor or receiving care.”
The program will first be piloted at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance. The program is expected to launch this spring, once enough virtual companions have been hired. Applicants should be high school graduates (or equivalent) with one year of experience in an acute hospital setting preferred. Interested individuals can view the job here.
The program has been used at systems across the country, Centeno said.
“Some have seen a 20% reduction in fall rates with virtual patient companions,” she said.
