Bedside meetings with a patient's full care team are necessary for continuity of care, safety and outcomes. Though these meetings usually take place in person, evidence shows that virtual multidisciplinary rounds can reduce a patient's length of stay by up to 60 percent, according to new research published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
For the study, researchers established virtual multidisciplinary rounds using conference call technologies involving all members of a patient's care team and used electronic medical record data to track progress. Discharge huddles were also added to the process.
In addition to revealing a reduction in length of stay by up to 60 percent for patients, the study also found that "[v]irtual multidisciplinary rounds combined with other interventions can effectively reduce [length of stay] and observation hours," researchers wrote. "Decreasing variation among hospitalists and improved key stakeholder engagement can be achieved with virtual multidisciplinary rounds."
Additional research is needed, they explained, to understand more about how virtual multidisciplinary rounds would change across various medical settings.