CIRRANE / Executive paper / Virtual care
Virtual Care Transformation
Extending clinical reach while keeping care anchored in the local team
An example of work completed in previous employment roles
Executive takeaway
A virtual connection becomes useful only when clinical roles, local ownership, and escalation are designed into the care model.
Executive abstract
A care model needs an operating model.
Virtual care can bring nursing and specialty support into local care settings. Its value depends on the work around the connection: who responds, what can be handled remotely, and how the local team stays accountable. Previous employment work included system-wide virtual-care leadership and virtual care implementation at two hospitals. Published measures from one community hospital show how that work took shape at the bedside.
The situation
Bringing remote support into bedside care
A six-hospital system sought ways to connect patients, families, local clinicians, and remote care team members. At one community hospital, inpatient video allowed virtual visits with nurses, physicians, and specialists while bedside staff continued in-person care. The technology served a defined care model rather than standing alone as a digital service.
Leadership work
From concept through stabilization
Previous employment work included enterprise virtual-care leadership across the system and funding secured to support more than 100 virtual-care locations. During his leadership, the health system received a $1 million FCC COVID-19 Telehealth Program award to support its digital health network. Separately, a hospital in the system was selected for the FCC Connected Care Pilot Program with $367,200 in proposed support; the FCC described this as funding sought. The work included taking virtual care from concept through stabilization at two hospitals and integrating virtual care into inpatient, outpatient, and urgent-care services. Local nursing, clinical, operational, and technology teams implemented the community hospital’s inpatient program during the telemedicine leadership effort.
Reported hospital outcomes
What the hospital reported
A Fall 2024 publication reported 36 equipped inpatient rooms and 12 nurses trained for virtual care at the community hospital. It also reported an average of one hour per day returned to each bedside nurse by shifting defined administrative tasks to virtual support. These are the hospital’s reported figures.
Questions for hospital leaders
What would make this work locally?
Which clinical tasks can virtual support handle, and which must stay at the bedside? How will staff, patients, and families know who is responsible for each part of care? What staffing, technology, consent, reimbursement, and governance arrangements can the organization sustain? These are planning questions for a local decision.
This paper describes work completed in previous employment roles, not a CIRRANE client engagement. It does not imply former-employer sponsorship or endorsement of CIRRANE. Reported results are context-specific and do not promise comparable outcomes.
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