Can an AI-powered virtual concierge help hospitals address the nursing shortage?

Over a million registered nurses (RNs) will retire by 2030, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce predicts there will be an average of 193,100 job openings for RNs every year through 2032, but only 177,400 RNs total are on pace to enter the workforce over this span

Barring a near-miraculous development, the nation’s nursing shortage will continue for years, along with the elevated risk of burnout among RNs and the overall decline in the quality of patient care. In the face of this shortage, many hospitals and health systems are turning to new, AI-fueled solutions as their saving grace

AvaSure, a company that has already found success installing its Virtual Care Platform and AI-powered devices into more than one thousand hospitals, is developing a virtual concierge that would be placed in patient rooms to help simplify communication and improve the workflow of healthcare providers.

An Extra Pair of (Virtual) Hands

Practically, the virtual concierge will work a lot like the voice-activated assistants many of us use at home. Anyone in the room will be able to activate it by speaking a simple wake word (along the lines of “Alexa,” or “Hey Siri”).

Patients and their families will be able to use the virtual concierge for assistance, such as requesting items or asking health-related questions about symptoms or treatment. Through its AI infrastructure, the concierge will be able to address patient needs in real time, analyzing requests and alerting the specific members of the hospital staff needed to assist.

Since nurses often bear the brunt of serving as the first point of contact when patients require assistance, this tool could save them time and prevent them from being pulled away from more important duties by simply bypassing nurses altogether if a patient has a request or need that requires input from a specialist or doctor.

Going further to help them, nurses can also use the virtual concierge through hands-free voice commands. This will make it significantly easier for them to request additional support, even in the midst of providing patient care, including calling for assistance from other hospital staff and activating language translation services.

By streamlining patient-staff communication and making it easier for RNs to adapt to patient needs, AvaSure’s virtual concierge could significantly improve nurses’ work environments, and by extension the bedside care and safety of patients. Over 50% of nurses reported considering leaving their job in part due to their “inability to deliver quality care consistently” to patients, according to the American Nurses Foundation. Staffing shortages lead to higher burnout levels, of course, but they also directly impact patient safety and can lead to moral injury, a psychological distress that arises from actions (or inactions) which violate someone’s moral or ethical code.

“AI-powered microservices can help hospitals and healthcare organizations enhance patient care experiences and improve operational efficiency,” said Brad Genereaux, global lead for healthcare alliances at NVIDIA. “Powered by NVIDIA NIM microservices and OCI’s AI infrastructure, AvaSure’s virtual concierge can help physicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers deliver a more personalized approach to patient care.”

Another Step Towards Smart Hospitals

AvaSure’s virtual concierge is being built on the company’s Virtual Care Platform in collaboration with both Oracle and NVIDIA. By leveraging the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and NVIDIA’s accelerated computing infrastructure, the virtual concierge will create an AI-powered experience that offers an extra layer of support for nurses and care teams.

“This collaboration marks an exciting milestone in our mission to revolutionize patient care with intelligent virtual solutions,” said Adam McMullin, CEO of AvaSure in a press release. “We are excited to explore how incorporating AvaSure’s expertise in virtual care with OCI’s AI infrastructure and NVIDIA’s advanced NIM microservices can help create a solution to redefine how care is delivered in hospitals and health systems, empowering care teams to provide more efficient and effective patient care.”

AvaSure is confident in its new AI-driven solution, believing it will integrate seamlessly into the patient smart rooms that many hospitals have begun to build in an effort to address challenges such as staffing shortages. These smart rooms will contain devices and technologies that combine virtual and in-person care, and centralized coordination will be crucial to the success of this new model of care. According to AvaSure, its AI-powered virtual concierge will assist greatly with this coordination and provide vital assistance to clinicians, patients, and patients’ families.

The nursing shortage is real, and it’s not going away anytime soon. But thanks to AI-driven solutions like AvaSure’s virtual concierge, hospitals are becoming better equipped to tackle this challenge head-on, improving patient care and making the lives of nurses easier in the process.