Mary Washington Healthcare Partners with Caregility to Pioneer Inpatient Virtual Engagement and Virtual Nursing Program

The program brings two-way virtual care communications to the hospital bedside to increase nurse assistance, improve patient safety, and advance care model innovation within the regional health system.

Fredericksburg, VA, and Eatontown, NJ, (February 14, 2023) – Caregility, an enterprise telehealth leader dedicated to connecting care for patients and clinicians everywhere, is pleased to announce Mary Washington Healthcare as one of the first organizations to implement its new Inpatient Virtual Engagement (IVE) solution at Stafford Hospital. The Virginia-based not-for-profit health system will leverage IVE to support a new Virtual Nursing program that will allow Registered Nurses (RNs) working from a virtual nursing hub located on Stafford Hospital’s campus to field patient care tasks that do not require hands-on care using synchronous, video-enabled engagement at the patient bedside.

Building upon the health system’s success with virtual Intensive Care Unit (tele-ICU) support, the Virtual Nursing program aims to improve patient safety and reduce strain on clinicians so bedside RNs can focus on direct patient care and their full scope of practice.

“We see Virtual Nursing as a way to support our commitment to adopting new technologies that keep our clinicians providing leading-edge patient care,” says Debra Marinari, Associate Vice President of Hospital Operations at Mary Washington Healthcare’s Stafford Hospital. “By improving the experience of our care team, we positively impact patient safety and experience.”

To enable remote clinician access, Mary Washington Healthcare is implementing Caregility’s IVE solution and new APS100 telehealth endpoints for lower-acuity patient settings. Powered by the Best-in-KLAS Caregility Cloud™ virtual care platform, IVE combines medical-grade telehealth systems, purpose-built virtual observation and consultation applications, and sophisticated device fleet management into an affordable, subscription-based Solution-as-a-Service. The platform integrates with Epic, allowing staff to launch virtual visits within the native electronic health record (EHR) environment.

“Inpatient Virtual Nursing will allow us to leverage technology to implement flexible care delivery models, simultaneously enhancing quality and experience for patients while providing additional support for our bedside caregivers,” says Christopher Newman, MD, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer at Mary Washington Healthcare. “It will also allow us to modernize what patient care looks like while improving our ability to manage variability in day-to-day capacity challenges.”

The virtual nursing program is the latest step in a series of digital health innovation programs at Mary Washington Healthcare. Additional efforts include robotics-based support for point-to-point supply management as well as plans to expand hybrid care models that blend in-person and virtual care to urgent care and rural community settings.

The health system is currently in the process of building out its Virtual Nursing hub and infrastructure and is actively seeking candidates to fill several new virtual nurse roles. Candidates are invited to learn more and apply at mwhccareers.com.

“We applaud Mary Washington Healthcare’s commitment to innovation and workforce enablement as a pioneer of Virtual Nursing,” said Pete McLain, Chief Strategy Officer at Caregility. “This team’s efforts rival those of national health systems, many of which are following suit. By making virtual care and engagement accessible in every patient room, healthcare organizations are better equipped to overcome resource challenges and modernize care models.”

To learn more about Mary Washington Healthcare’s Virtual Nursing Program, visit https://www.marywashingtonhealthcare.com/patients-visitors/patient-visitor-information/stafford-hospital/virtual-nursing/.

To learn more about Caregility’s Inpatient Virtual Engagement solution for bedside virtual care, visit https://caregility.com/caregility-solutions/inpatient-virtual-engagement/.

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About Mary Washington Healthcare:

Mary Washington Healthcare is a fully integrated, regional medical system that provides inpatient and outpatient care through more than 50 facilities and services including Mary Washington Hospital, a 471-bed regional medical center, and Stafford Hospital, a 100-bed community hospital. Mary Washington Healthcare is a not-for-profit health system with a longstanding commitment to provide care regardless of ability to pay. For more information about our services and facilities, please visit www.mwhc.com.

About Caregility:
Caregility Corporation is dedicated to connecting patients and clinicians everywhere with its Caregility Cloud™ virtual care platform. Awarded the Best in KLAS Virtual Care Platform (non-EMR) in 2021, 2022, and 2023, Caregility Cloud™ powers a purpose-built ecosystem of enterprise telehealth solutions across the care continuum. Caregility provides secure, reliable, and HIPAA-compliant audio and video communication designed for any device and clinical workflow, in both acute and ambulatory settings. Today Caregility supports more than 1,000 hospitals across 75 health systems with over five million virtual care sessions hosted annually. From critical and acute, to urgent and emergent, to post-acute and ambulatory, as well as hospital-at-home, Caregility is connecting care everywhere. Follow Caregility on LinkedIn and Twitter at @caregility.