Leveraging care.ai’s Virtual Nursing solution, the program will streamline clinical workflows to support an overburdened nursing workforce and improve patient care and experience
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Dec. 13, 2022) – care.ai, the first and only AI-powered ambient monitoring platform in healthcare, and Ardent Health Services today announced a partnership to implement care.ai’s Virtual Nursing solution at Lovelace Medical Center, Ardent’s Albuquerque, New Mexico-based affiliate. Ardent, which operates 30 hospitals and nearly 200 sites of care across six states, is among the first of care.ai’s partners to introduce AI-powered nursing.
Part of care.ai’s Smart Care Facility Platform, the Virtual Nursing solution empowers care teams to work more efficiently and drive improved clinical outcomes. Enabled by AI-powered autonomous inferencing and in-room sensors, the platform allows virtual nurses to manage a wide variety of patient care tasks that do not require physical proximity – from routine monitoring and documentation to education, precepting and compliance reporting. This takes the burden off on-site nurses, enabling them to focus more time and attention on the crucial hands-on care that only they can provide. Together, virtual and on-site teams can optimize admission, rounding, discharge and other clinical and operational workflows, which leads to higher patient satisfaction scores, greater staff retention and reduced operating costs.
Lovelace’s integration of care.ai’s innovative platform comes at a critical time for health systems, as many face workforce shortages across all levels of care. A nursing workforce analysis published in Health Affairs found that the total supply of RNs decreased by more than 100,000 from 2020 to 2021 – the largest drop observed over the past four decades. Ardent’s integration of care.ai’s Virtual Nursing solution will not only help address these shortages, but also fundamentally change the way healthcare is delivered at Lovelace.
“Nursing workforce shortages and staff retention challenges have taken a major toll on the entire U.S. health system, amplifying how the work required of our caregivers is increasingly becoming humanly impossible,” said care.ai CEO and Founder Chakri Toleti. “Too often, rather than spending time delivering hands-on patient care, bedside nurses are required to redirect a significant portion of their shifts to perform routine tasks like manual data entry and compliance reporting. Our partnership with Ardent to leverage the ambient intelligence capabilities of our smart care platform will deliver a new and enhanced layer of support that empowers Lovelace clinicians to focus their time, efforts and compassion on what they love most about care delivery.”
“At Ardent, we are deeply committed to leveraging technology to support caregivers and help our hospitals and clinics improve the quality of care provided. Now more than ever, retaining passionate, highly skilled caregivers and improving the work environment for frontline team members is critical to the success of any hospital,” said Ardent Chief Executive Officer Marty Bonick. “By integrating this AI-powered technology into our care delivery model, we believe we can relieve some of the burden carried by nurses and ensure our team members are able to continue providing the best care for patients while also taking care of themselves.”
The introduction of care.ai’s Virtual Nursing solution at Lovelace will offer nurses more flexibility and expand the pool of nursing staff available. Once onboarded, nurses will be able to automate routine tasks, dedicate more time to patients, and enjoy an enhanced nursing experience. The program also opens up new career paths for experienced nurses who may have physical limitations or prefer a different work environment.
“Nursing is my passion, but after an injury that sidelined me from the floor of the emergency department, I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to continue,” said John Donga, RN, at Lovelace Medical Center. “Through the virtual nursing program, I’ve been able to continue the career I love. I am thrilled to see how this field is evolving to allow nurses to focus on what we do best: caring for patients.”
care.ai’s Virtual Nursing solution will be fully integrated at Lovelace Medical Center and in other Ardent-affiliated facilities. Ardent and care.ai aim to implement more widespread use of transformative technology throughout the healthcare industry to help improve quality care, optimize caregiver resources and drive innovation.