UT Health East Texas launched its virtual nursing program in partnership with care.ai June 24, according to a hospital news release.
The first-in-the-region program is designed to support UT Health East's bedside nurses in a variety of patient care tasks, such as monitoring or providing education and discharge instructions. The health system added video communication between patients and remote registered nurses as well as in-room sensors to optimize admissions, rounding and discharge workflows.
Nurses were involved in the decision-making process for standing up the new program, with the goal of bedside nurses being able to spend more time caring for patients.
"Incorporating frontline nurses' expertise and opinions in vetting new technology such as virtual nursing platforms has been an essential piece of our innovation efforts," Donald Baker, regional president for UT Health East Texas, said in the news release. "We are deeply committed to leveraging technology to support our team members and help our hospitals and clinics improve the quality of care and experience provided."