GROVE CITY, Ohio — Virtual technology is now taking on nursing at Mount Carmel Grove City Hospital.
Patients who choose the option can access an experienced registered nurse at the touch of a button.
Mount Carmel Grove City is the first in the Trinity Health System in central Ohio to move to this transformational care team model which includes a direct care nurse, a nursing assistant and a virtual nurse.
The virtual nurses will have access to complete medical records and the ability to perform detailed examinations using an advanced camera technology placed in designated rooms. The cameras can also see the pupil of a patient's eye and they can see the numbers on an IV pump.
"The virtual nurse can help answer call lights. They can give the patient information and they can help with their admission or their discharge," said Chief Nursing Officer Denise Minor.
The hospital’s president and chief operating officer, Tauana McDonald, said the team model will help address the nursing shortage and benefit patients.
“What I tell the patients is you're going to have more hands-on care from the bedside nurse,” she said. “A lot of things the bedside nurse was doing, will be performed by the virtual nurse and then the tech so your family member is going to have more hands-on care.”
The virtual hub is operated locally at Mount Carmel East Hospital.