Spokane, Wash.-based MultiCare Deaconess Hospital is offsetting nursing shortages with virtual nurses and robots, The Seattle Times reported July 18.
The virtual nurse pilot launched May 9 and is now in 30 rooms on the medical-surgical unit and expected to expand to 64 additional rooms by fall. In August, the virtual nurse model will expand into medical oncology, then into complicated surgery units by October.
Deaconess is the first Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System facility to use virtual nurses, but it plans to roll out the technology to eight more hospitals by the first quarter of 2024, nursing leaders told Becker's.
In addition to virtual nurses, the hospital also utilizes six self-propelled robots called Moxi that deliver gowns and lab samples as directed by nurses.
"As we implement these technologies, we're trying to keep our eyes on the looming nursing crisis," Jennifer Graham, RN, MultiCare's chief executive of nursing, told the Times. "It's not even looming — the nursing crisis is here."