The growth of wearable devices has brought great potential for improved, more proactive healthcare, especially in the area of sensor-enabled remote patient monitoring (RPM). According to research, remote patient management services and tools are expected to reach over 70 million U.S. patients by 2025. The challenge is that activating the data needed for effective RPM requires a level of expertise often provided by registered nurses (RNs) or other provider team members for whom scarcity and cost may limit maximum scale and impact. This creates a unique challenge for healthcare organizations struggling with our nation’s ongoing clinical and administrative shortages.
The demand for nurses to manage virtual monitoring will compete with the demand for bedside nurses—all as the nursing shortage continues to escalate.
A Growing Need
Our nation is aging, and with that comes more chronic health conditions that require more, and often more complex care than younger populations. An analysis by the NIH suggests that by 2035, approximately 35% of the adult population aged 50 and older will have at least one chronic disease. This number is expected to increase to around 48% by 2050. RPM holds significant promise in caring for this vulnerable population. Fortunately, older adults are becoming increasingly adept at using new technologies, including those involved in RPM, such as wearable devices and remote monitoring equipment.
A Growing Challenge
Dubbed a global health emergency, the nursing shortage shows no signs of abating. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the RN workforce is expected to grow from 3.1 million in 2021 to 3.3 million in 2031, an increase of 195,400 nurses. The Bureau also projects 203,200 openings for RNs each year through 2031 when nurse retirements and workforce exits are factored into the number of nurses needed in the U.S. A National Nursing Workforce Survey found that the average age for an RN is 52 years old, which signals a large retirement wave over the next 15 years.
Additionally, the pandemic has increased the stress of nursing exponentially. The International Council of Nurses report, Recover to Rebuild, found that globally, 40–80% of nurses have experienced symptoms of psychological distress since the start of the pandemic. And the number of nurses who reported that they intended to leave their jobs has risen to 20% or higher. Annual staff turnover in hospitals has increased to 10% or higher.
Compounding the problem, nursing schools nationwide are struggling to expand their capacity to meet the rising demand for new nurses.
Addressing Clinical Staffing Shortages for RPM
In some instances, healthcare providers using RPM have chosen to employ part-time or retired nurses to monitor remote patient data. While this may address flexibility and work-life balance concerns for transitioning nurses, it exacerbates the shortage of full time nurses at the bedside.
Other organizations have added RPM monitoring to the already significant duties of existing nursing staff. In a Journal of Internet Research report, half of the nurses surveyed reported that RPM increased workloads, adding more stress to an already stressful job. This is not a sustainable solution.
A Better Approach
There is another approach that makes RPM more effective, reduces vacancies at the bedside, relieves the additional administrative burden, makes reporting more effective and efficient, and keeps seasoned nurses performing at the top of their license.
Clinical Process Outsourcing (CPO®) is an innovative approach that aligns technology and onsite and remote clinical professionals to achieve quality outcomes, efficiency, innovation, and cost savings at a nearly limitless scale, including to deliver impact across data-enabled RPM and similar workflow.
Clinical Process Outsourcing (CPO®) was created by Shearwater Health to effectively address the nursing shortage in the U.S. The company’s scalable nursing support, virtual or onsite, allows caregivers to be where they will make the most significant impact. In the case of RPM, a virtual approach performed by CPO® nurses increases efficiencies and reduces costs, requiring onsite staff to step in only when medically necessary. At the same time, it allows bedside nurses more time to focus on providing direct care and/or serving as mentors for new nurses while working a more desirable schedule.
The Journey Forward
RPM is poised to play an increasingly important role in managing the chronic conditions of our aging population. Effective RPM can lower the cost of care, improve outcomes, and enhance the patient experience. However, RPM requires a level of nursing support that may prove challenging as our nation’s nursing shortage continues. Healthcare organizations should explore innovative solutions like CPO to address these challenges.
About Shearwater Health
Shearwater Health provides teams of remote and onsite clinicians that expand the size and impact of clinical teams so that clients can focus on internal teams practicing at the peak of their license. From bedside to back-office, over 4,500 Shearwater clinicians are solving medical and administrative problems every hour of every day worldwide.
