Success Story
Improving Patient Safety and Reducing Costs with Virtual Observation
UMass Memorial’s Digital Health System of the Future
About UMass
UMass Memorial Health is the largest health system in central Massachusetts and the clinical partner of UMass Chan Medical School. Home to the region’s only Level I Trauma Center and Level III NICU, the health system is committed to innovative care models that improve outcomes while addressing staffing challenges.
The Challenge
Maximizing Care Quality When Workforce Resources Are Limited
UMass Memorial Health needed to find innovative ways to balance high-quality care delivery with sustainable staffing models. Leadership sought to improve patient safety and access to care while controlling labor costs in the face of a shrinking clinical workforce. They wanted to introduce new virtual patient monitoring tools to serve as an extra set of eyes and ears for staff and patients, but had struggled to find a scalable, cost-effective solution to use across their multiple campuses.
The Connected Care Solution
Building on a trusted track record with Caregility established through a successful Tele-ICU endpoint upgrade and virtual care support during the pandemic, UMass Memorial Health began thinking outside the box. The health system successfully manages virtual critical care across its locations as well as three external partner sites. UMass saw an opportunity to expand its virtual observation footprint beyond the ICU to enhance patient safety and operational efficiency in additional capacities across the health system.
“Since its inception in 2006, we’ve seen patients go home sooner with fewer complications and a 27% reduction in mortality. In our first year of operation, we saved over 3,000 bed days at our busiest hospitals.”
– Dave Smith, Senior Director, Digital Innovation, UMass Memorial Health
Taking Virtual Patient Observation System-Wide
UMass redeployed 100 Caregility mobile telehealth carts originally used in the pandemic response to be part of a new virtual patient observation pilot program. The goal was to transition one-on-one patient sitting to a virtual sitting model using Caregility’s iObserver application.
Caregility worked closely with the UMass nursing informatics and IT teams to develop a limited hub-and-spoke model, with virtual patient monitoring deployed at three campuses. Virtual sitters stationed at the observation hub monitor patients in multiples of six while serving as backup for an additional six patients.
“Having two sets of eyes on every bed has been very effective for us,” said Dave Smith, Senior Director of Digital Innovation at UMass. “That helps us ensure coverage during breaks and when sitters are actively engaging individuals.”
Within months, the program transitioned from pilot to full production. UMass recently elected to make virtual observation a more permanent fixture in new patient rooms, moving away from carts in favor of Caregility dual-camera Duo smart room devices that integrate directly with the television in the patient’s room.
Three observation stations staffed 24/7 monitor patients for elopement, line tugging, disorientation, agitation, and fall risks. HL7 connectivity and integrations with Epic, Ambient Clinical, EmOpti, and LanguageLine further ensure that clinical workflows remain connected and efficient. “Our goal is to unify virtual care under a single platform while connecting it with the tools clinicians use every day,” said Smith.
Integrations:
- Epic
- Ambient Clinical
- EmOptie
- Get Well Network
- LanguageLine
Integrations that Amplify Impact
Ambient Clinical for Tele-ICU CDS – Caregility’s integration with Ambient Clinical Analytics’ Aware platform provides UMass Tele-ICU clinicians with at-a-glance awareness of a patient’s complete status, supporting monitoring and Clinical Decision Support for large numbers of patients simultaneously.
EmOpti for Tele-Stroke Support — In alignment with its Health System of the Future strategy, UMass is also evaluating integration between Caregility and EmOpti to support tele-stroke workflows. The combined solution improves access to neurology specialists and surfaces critical data during stroke interventions.
LanguageLine for Interpreter Services – UMass leverages Caregility’s integration with LanguageLine to support two-way video-based interpreter services at the bedside. Compliant with language access requirements, the solutions ensure equitable access to care and effective communication for all patients.
Smith, who leads a multidisciplinary team focused on emerging technologies that enhance collaboration within care teams, is also evaluating AI solutions for ambient clinical notes and specialty care use cases. “It’s the cost of doing business for healthcare systems that want to innovate and remain competitive.”
The Results
- Substantial labor cost savings as a result of reduced reliance on 1:1 sitter resources
- 12,000+ patient interventions logged monthly from virtual observation hubs
- Growing staff demand for additional smart room endpoints for broader patient coverage
- Observation ratios rising to maximize observer capacity
Improved Safety, Staff Efficiency, and ROI
“The remote video monitoring program has shown the strongest direct labor cost ROI by enabling a single care team member to support six patients instead of the conventional one-on-one observation ratios. For every remote observation tech, we save $280,000 a year in direct labor costs.” – Dave Smith
Since implementing virtual observation with Caregility, UMass has seen powerful outcomes.
“The UMass Memorial virtual observation program has earned overwhelming support from nursing leadership and is viewed as a major success,” noted Smith.
“We saw a massive savings opportunity from a resource perspective in the ability to stream constant patient observation.”
“All new patient rooms are being designed with the ability to provide this service.”
The Digital Health System of the Future
UMass Memorial Health recently unveiled a new state-of-the-art digital hub to consolidate its virtual care operations, along with a new 72-bed North Pavilion subacute hospital, designed from the ground up with tech-enabled patient rooms. Within the Digital Hub space, UMass can now flex up to 7 observation stations 24/7.
“As we design new clinical spaces, we’re proceeding with telehealth solutions integrated into the care setting,” said Smith. “Next-gen will be every bed, every room — either on the wall or attached to the TV. We’ll use the technology for a variety of use cases like virtual rounding, remote observation, specialty consults, patient family communication, and even tele-ICU level care. And the funny thing is, it was an easy sell to hospital leadership because they understand the importance of hybrid care and balancing staffing demands. I just think hybrid care is the new standard.”
“To do anything at scale, it cannot exist in silos and pockets that are scattered throughout the organization. In fact, a good example is our commitment to building a digital medicine hub. We’re taking most of our virtual services and putting them under one roof. And by doing so, not only will it be a showcase for our health system of the future, but we’re expecting to find operational synergies by having these virtual care teams collaborate in the same physical space. Teams like eICU, Transfer Center, RVM, RPM, interpreter services, and virtual nursing will all be working alongside each other.”
Download a PDF copy of the UMass + Caregility Virtual Patient Observation case study .
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