Community Health Systems to expand virtual sitting to 29 hospitals Beckers Hospital Review Healthcare News Analysis

pFranklin Tennbased Community Health Systems plans to expand virtual sitting to 29 hospitals as the program has been successful in preventing patient fallsppThe 78hospital system started piloting the sitting platform from telehealth company AvaSure in 2021 at two locations The program later expanded to 15 CHS hospitals in Arkansas Indiana and Tennessee and the health system plans to roll it out at another 12 facilities by the end of 2023 No patients in the program reported any falls with injuries in 2022ppWe really are able to clearly create some efficiencies and redeploy caregivers back to the bedside Lynn Simon MD president of healthcare innovation and chief medical officer of Community Health Systems told BeckersppRemote sitters operate out of a CHS hospital in Tennessee each monitoring 12 to 16 highrisk patients at a time for signs they might be getting up or otherwise be in danger of a fall The cameras are rolled into the patient roomsppThey have eyes on the patients at all times Dr Simon said of the sitters Theres also twoway audio so the person watching can audio into the room and talk and have a conversation with the patient ask them if theyre uncomfortable remind them to stay in bed That conversation seems to be the difference Its more than just alerting the nurse that does happen when the patient appears to be trying to get out of bed but its really about the backandforth communication with the patient that helps keep them safe and keeps them from fallingppSince implementing the program the health system has experienced up to a 76 percent drop in falls at some hospitals Dr Simon saidppCommunity Health Systems big bet on virtual sitting comes at a time when many health systems are going all in on virtual nursing CHS has had some small virtual nursing pilots helping with things like patient admission and discharge but is still in the exploration stages for that model Dr Simon saidppThe biggest value that were seeing that weve been able to scale is the virtual sitting but we do intend to continue to iterate with our other virtual nursing opportunities she saidppA data breach tied to a former business partner of St Louisbased Ascension compromised the information of 437329 individuals AscensionppAspen Colo Valley Hospital has rebranded to Aspen Valley Health The new brand announced May 12 features a redesigned logoppIn an effort to streamline clinical workflows and better engage patients Wolters Kluwer Health is bolstering its flagship decision supportppComments are closedpp18004172035ppbeckerbeckershealthcarecomppCopyright 2025 Beckers Healthcare All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Linking and Reprinting Policy  Employee Accessp