What is a Virtual Nursing Assistant?
A virtual nursing assistant gathers information from patients just like a nurse would, but they can do this for more than one person at once and sends information to EMR (electronic medical record) systems for you.
The use of a virtual nursing assistant aims to improve the standard and efficiency of health care and make the work of medical staff in private practices, clinics, care homes, hospitals, health centers, and rehabilitation centers easier. It also helps in the nursing shortage.
What Does a Virtual Nursing Assistant Do?
Virtual nursing assistants are there for patients, providers, pharma, and healthcare companies. Their goal is to improve patient outcomes, streamline medical workflow, and lower monitoring costs. They can do regular check-ins with patients to find out how they are doing and what they need.
After a patient meets with this virtual assistant, the nurse can then send their report to the patient’s medical record, update their files, and/or reach out to the doctor with all updates.
Virtual nursing assistants can help monitor a patient’s health by using wireless straps and seamless tracking. Based on the symptoms, virtual nursing assistants can even help with diagnosis. They can send the health reports to the doctor or therapist who is in charge of each patient and more.
They can also help set up follow-up visits to the clinic if they feel one is warranted. Care for a patient is more than just working on the body. It’s about getting information regularly, looking at symptoms, making plans for patient growth, and more.
With virtual nursing assistants, doctors and nurses can save time and focus on a patient’s most important face-to-face needs.
Who Can Benefit From a Virtual Nursing Assistant?
Patients
Physicians and other providers will have the ability to free up their time and attention on tedious tasks, in order to focus more time on the patient in front of them with the help of a virtual nursing assistant.
Providers
Many people who work in health care are getting burned out because of the Covid-19 outbreak. A virtual nursing assistant makes it easier for physicians and nurses to do their jobs without lowering the standard of care.
Reasons Why You Should Hire a Virtual Nursing Assistant
Hiring a virtual nurse assistant can help healthcare offices in many ways. For example, it can cut down on administrative costs and save time on daily rounds. Here are some positive things that can happen when you hire a virtual nursing assistant:
Reduces healthcare overhead costs of hiring in-office nurses
Mitigating the current nursing crisis
Helping to provide care for chronic patients and the elderly
Gathering information to plan for the future
In summary, here are the top four reasons why you should hire a virtual nursing assistant for your practice:
Cost savings – One of the best ways to save money is to hire a VA nurse. You can decide to pay your assistant by the hour, or in any other way that suits your needs. On the other hand, working with an in-house assistant means you have to pay a fixed salary and other perks like health insurance, a pension, and more, all of which can be expensive in the long run. Also, you don’t have to pay extra for things like a computer, a phone line, or even a desk to set up your office. Using a nursing virtual assistant is a cheap and efficient way to run your business
Increased doctor-patient relationships – Working with a skilled virtual helper makes it easy and quick to set up follow-ups with patients and personal calls to give them more medical advice. So, you can focus on each patient while someone else does work in the background
Boost productivity – A nursing virtual assistant takes care of all the hard, behind-the-scenes work that comes with running a clinic. This gives you time to focus on the quality of your service and how you treat your patients. Working with a skilled assistant can help you get a lot more done
Grow your practice – When you hire an experienced nursing virtual assistant, you not only get a better work-life balance, but you also waste less time and make more money. As a result, you can grow your business while keeping costs low
Pros and Cons of Virtual Nursing Assistants
As with any business decision, there are both pros and cons to having virtual nursing assistants as part of your team.
The Pros can Include the Following:
Convenient
Cost reduction
Efficiency
Higher patent satisfaction
Reduces or eliminates the need for travel
Encourages preventative health
The Cons can Include the Following:
Some people don’t have access to the technology needed to participate
Some barriers may be in place when it comes to accessibility of the virtual nursing assistant to the patient, so their tasks may be limited depending on what is needed
It may not apply to all medical situations
Some patients may prefer not to use this service
Wrapping up How Virtual Nursing Assistants Work for Your Practice
As a doctor, it can be hard to keep up with everything that needs to be done in a clinic. To keep the clinic going, you may have to pay attention to your patients, do administrative work, and keep up with other tasks.
It can get overwhelming trying to keep up, and hiring an assistant may be on your radar. But hiring a virtual nursing assistant could be the best addition to your practice and be everything needed to grow your business so much more.
Are you ready to boost patient relationships, save money, grow your practice, and boost productivity? Reach out to MedVA today to schedule your discovery call, and let us know your needs so we can help connect you with the right virtual assistant for your clinic.