For hospitals, the primary care model is stretching available staff and budgets to their limits. With advances in healthcare technology, virtual nursing can remove budgetary pressures while simultaneously uplifting and advancing staff to improve job satisfaction and reducing burnout and turnover.
The Extant Primary Care Model
The current primary care model is experiencing a strain. Care complexity is rising as the nursing workforce cannot keep pace due to time and financial stresses. Hospitals are experiencing staffing shortages while simultaneously trying to develop market-specific RN pipelines. The diminished RN talent pool has increased cross-continuum RN competition. Ultimately, the tightening operating margins are increasing the pressure on labor costs, creating a divide between services, staffing, quality of care, and revenue. To resolve these imbalances, many hospitals are implementing virtual nursing to transform the primary care model.
Increasing Care for Patients
In the traditional staffing model, a team of one RN and one tech would provide care for six patients. As the number of admissions rises, the traditional primary care model is placing a greater burden on nurses and creating higher turnover and burnout rates. Virtual nursing changes the primary care model. With a virtual nurse, a new primary care model is created, and one RN accompanied by a tech and one LPN can provide quality care to 12 patients. Virtual nursing can double the efficiency of a facility and improve quality care without placing undue strain on nurses. The new streamlined model increases nursing job satisfaction along with quality care while decreasing turnover, burnout, and – most importantly – operating costs.
Bringing Technology and People Together
Virtual nursing and other teleprofessionals do not create a divide between technological advances and real people. Quite the opposite. Virtual nursing integrates seamlessly with existing staff to revolutionize the primary care model and create a cohesive team that alleviates the burdens of staffing and expenses. With a virtual nurse, a hospital can provide more coverage, improve quality care ratings, decrease costs, and allow nursing staff to increase their skills and achieve greater job satisfaction.
At BANYAN, we are leading the field in virtual nursing for the healthcare industry. Our innovative technology, combines with our change management programs, have been revolutionizing the primary care model in hospitals across the United States. Contact BANYAN today to learn more about virtual nursing and the many benefits our services can offer to your facility.
