The Florida-based health system will significantly expand inpatient telehealth to connect hospital patients and staff with remote nurse resources.
Lee Health, one of Florida’s largest health systems, is significantly expanding its Virtual Nursing Program with Caregility, a leading enterprise telehealth company.
Through the initiative, Lee Health continues its commitment to modernizing care delivery, enhancing clinical efficiency, and improving patient and staff satisfaction. The latest expansion includes the deployment of Caregility APS200 Duo dual-camera telehealth devices, building on the existing fleet of telehealth wall systems and carts to more than double the health system’s inpatient virtual care footprint. With this expansion, Lee Health’s virtual acute care infrastructure will cover more than half of the health system’s hospital beds, equipping nearly 1,000 patient rooms with bedside telehealth technology.
“The growth of our telehealth options accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic out of necessity to ensure patients received important care safely and we were able to ensure continuous support for our medical teams,” said Rick Schooler, Chief Information Officer of Lee Health. “Through our expansion since then, we’ve evolved our virtual care capabilities to include an award-winning inpatient virtual observation program and now virtual nursing to improve patient outcomes utilizing available, improved technology to help our clinical staff.”
“This expansion is an important part of Lee Health’s broader strategy to modernize healthcare delivery,” said Jennifer Higgins, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Nursing Officer of Lee Health. “Our virtual nursing program introduces innovative possibilities in patient care workflows by connecting the care in the complex patient journey. From admissions and discharges to continuous patient monitoring, patients benefit from an additional team member dedicated to their care. We anticipate this additionally offering our nurses time for patients that need more hands-on care.”
“Having eyes and ears in every room enables remote caregivers to respond more effectively to the needs of patients and bedside staff across the enterprise,” said Wendy Deibert, Chief Nursing Officer at Caregility. “This expansion represents a significant step forward in Lee Health’s digital health strategy, paving the way for future innovation at the intersection of virtual care, bedside care, and AI, and we’re honored to support their mission to advance the art of what’s possible in healthcare delivery.”
As a foundational partner, Caregility has worked closely with Lee Health to create a future-proof solution that supports a broad array of clinical workflows, offers AI capabilities, and can support local edge processing. The Caregility Cloud™ virtual care platform serves as the backbone for all of Lee Health’s virtual care programs.
Lee Health’s investment scales its virtual nursing program, supported by Caregility’s unique remote fleet management tools, which mitigate device support hurdles and improve operations. With around-the-clock monitoring and support, as well as seamless software updates via Caregility’s cloud-based administration portal, Lee Health can ensure that its telehealth devices remain operational with minimal on-site maintenance requirements.
“With our edge-processing, dual-camera APS200 Duo devices that support multiple concurrent workflows, we have built a commercial offering designed to be deployed at scale,” said Ron Gaboury, CEO of Caregility. “Our mission with Lee Health and other customers is to set the foundation for long-term growth and hospital-room-of-the-future innovation. This empowers care teams to maximize virtual care workflows while reducing up-front costs and operational challenges associated with maintaining a device in every room.”
Learn more about Lee Health’s telemedicine and virtual care services at https://www.leehealth.org/our-services/telemedicine. Learn more about Caregility at https://caregility.com.
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