Perceptions of Nurses Delivering Nursing Home Virtual Care Support: A Qualitative Pilot Study.

Avoidable hospitalizations among nursing home residents result in poorer health outcomes and excess costs. Consequently, efforts to reduce avoidable hospitalizations have been a priority over the recent decade. However, many potential interventions are time-intensive and require dedicated clinical staff, although nursing homes are chronically understaffed. The OPTIMISTIC project was one of seven programs selected by CMS as "enhanced care & coordination providers" and was implemented from 2012 to 2020. This qualitative study explores the perceptions of the nurses that piloted a virtual care support project developed to expand the program's reach through telehealth, and specifically considered how nurses perceived the effectiveness of this program. Relationships, communication, and access to information were identified as common themes facilitating or impeding the perceived effectiveness of the implementation of virtual care support programs within nursing homes.
Competing Interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Kathleen Unroe serves as the CMO of Probari, Inc, a program to train nurses to reduce nursing home hospital transfers. There are no other potential conflicts of interest to report.
(© The Author(s) 2023.)