Modern Workforce Care Delivery Innovation Panel | Aya Ideas Recap

This 2024 Aya Ideas session, moderated by Melanie Bell, Aya Healthcare’s senior vice president of fulfillment and strategy, featured a panel of nursing leaders discussing innovative care delivery models. The panel emphasized the importance of leveraging talent creatively, adopting technology and building sustainable workforce pipelines to address workforce challenges.  

Melanie opened the session with a focus on workforce challenges, citing an RN unemployment rate of just 1.6% and turnover rates that remain unsustainably high across healthcare. She noted, “This is no longer just a nursing crisis, it’s really a healthcare professional crisis,” highlighting the need to rethink talent usage across multiple roles and professions.

Virtual Nursing at WellSpan Health

Amanda Nye, senior director of system nursing operations, introduced WellSpan’s virtual nursing program, designed to address burnout and staffing shortages across seven hospitals. The program deploys virtual nurses to manage discharges, admissions and transfers, alleviating the burden on bedside staff and enhancing patient care. 

Amanda shared the impact of these efforts in just a few months, from February to July 2024:

• RN burnout rate decreased from 84% to 47.7%
• Turnover dropped from 19.8% to 10%
• Patient communication scores rose from 80.6% to 89.8%

Budget constraints and technology challenges initially posed a challenge to WellSpan’s virtual nursing program. Many facilities could not afford the cost of installing network closets for hardwired internet. To address this, Amanda’s team implemented mobile units that provided flexible, cost-effective solutions for connectivity. Additionally, Amanda emphasized the importance of collaborative problem-solving, using Kaizen events to engage frontline staff in developing creative solutions.

Virtual Hospital at BayCare Health System

Melissa Winfield, director of nursing systems, discussed BayCare’s Virtual Hospital initiative, which offers hospital-level care to patients in the comfort of their own homes. This innovative model helped reduce care delivery costs by 30%, increased patient satisfaction and alleviated hospital capacity issues, particularly during Florida’s busy winter season. Patients are admitted into the hospital but receiving care at home with a mix of virtual care and face-to-face care with one visit a day from a physician and two RNs a day. They receive home monitoring equipment and access to a 24/7 virtual team that provides access to an RN and physician as needed. She explained the importance of careful patient selection for the program:

“[We have] very stringent and well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. [Virtual hospital patients] can’t receive medications more than twice a day. They have to have electricity and internet in their home. They have to be able to perform their own ADLs (activities of daily living).”

However, staffing for the program proved to be a challenge. As Melissa reported, convincing acute care nurses to provide care in a home setting was difficult. They ultimately found success by tapping into their float pool and offering specialized training, but expanding this program will require more strategic staffing solutions.

Connected Care Transformation and Talent Pipeline Development at MedStar

Dr. Hussein shared MedStar’s approach to workforce innovation through Connected Care, a program aimed at improving patient flow by reducing unnecessary ER visits. Using remote consultations in urgent care centers, the initiative allows patients to receive virtual care from specialists without long wait times or trips to the ER. In addition, remote visual monitoring has allowed MedStar to reduce sitter hours from over 1,300 to 400 per month, improving patient safety while optimizing staff allocation. Hussein noted:

“Remote visual monitoring has contributed to better patient experience scores, engagement scores and has contributed to avoidance of [potential] safety events.”

Hussein also introduced MedStar’s new Academy initiative:

“MedStar has the Academy at MedStar for workforce development in areas that continue to be a challenge to recruit into and upscale the entry level role so [clinicians] can climb the ladder, and increase their income and therefore improve their communities.”

By offering a variety of courses and workshops, the Academy at MedStar aims to foster a culture of learning and professional development among its staff. This initiative not only helps in improving the quality of care provided to patients but also supports the career growth and satisfaction of healthcare professionals.

Conclusion

This Aya Ideas session highlighted the importance of innovative care delivery and workforce strategies to address the ongoing healthcare staffing crisis. Panelists emphasized the need to embrace creative solutions, from virtual nursing and hospital-at-home programs to workforce development initiatives. The panel closed with a focus on the future, encouraging attendees to continue pushing boundaries, adopt new care models and develop robust talent pipelines to build a more resilient healthcare workforce.

“As we move into a time where it’s so important to innovate in our industry, somebody’s got to go first,” said Melanie, “Finding the places that we can [innovate] without having negative patient impact is so important. And all of these organizations [represented on the panel] have been early adopters in some really innovative areas.”