Collette Health’s Virtual Care Solutions Keep Experienced Nurses in Healthcare

Key Points:

• Collette Health’s virtual observation and nursing solutions strategically redistribute clinical responsibilities, optimizing both patient safety and staff workflow while preserving invaluable clinical expertise.
• 15 million observation hours have prevented 100,000+ falls annually, saving an estimated $3.5 billion.
• Virtual nursing creates sustainable career pathways for veteran nurses who might otherwise leave healthcare due to physical demands and burnout while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden for bedside nurses, allowing them to focus on direct patient care.
• Patient outcomes improve when experienced nurses remain in the system, with measurable benefits in clinical quality, safety, patient experience, and continuity of care.

Pioneering Healthcare Innovation: From Patient Observation to Virtual Nursing

Collette Health’s journey began in virtual patient observation, focused on solving the critical challenge of patient safety while reducing the monitoring burden on bedside nurses. By developing a sophisticated platform that enabled remote observation of patients for fall risks and other safety concerns, Collette Health built trust with healthcare facilities across the country.

This foundation of proven results created the perfect springboard for evolution. Recognizing additional ways to support healthcare teams and address the nursing shortage, Collette Health naturally expanded into virtual nursing. This strategic progression leverages the same core technology while addressing broader clinical needs.

This evolution came at a critical moment for American healthcare. With healthcare facilities facing critical staffing challenges nationwide, the nursing shortage has reached crisis levels. Physical exhaustion, burnout from administrative burdens, and unsustainable work schedules are forcing experienced nurses to make painful career exits. Beyond simply vacant positions, healthcare is losing decades of invaluable clinical knowledge as these veteran professionals leave the profession entirely.

Collette Health recognized that traditional solutions weren’t addressing the root causes driving seasoned professionals away. Their approach evolved from simply easing bedside monitoring burdens through virtual patient observation to expanding into virtual nursing—a solution that simultaneously retains veteran expertise, supports developing clinicians, and enhances patient care outcomes.

Why Nurses Are Saying “Yes” to Virtual Nursing

While nurses with decades of experience once faced the painful choice of leaving a profession they love due to physical demands, Collette Health now offers them a compelling alternative—supporting bedside teams, enhancing patient safety, and sharing their expertise from a setting that doesn’t require lifting patients or rushing between call lights.

Collette Health’s platform does more than just connect nurses to patients via video. It tackles the real reasons nurses quit:

• Redefining roles to reduce admin burden: Virtual nurses take on documentation and other administrative tasks, allowing bedside nurses to focus more fully on hands-on patient care.
• Creating sustainable career longevity: By transitioning into virtual roles, experienced nurses can continue contributing without the physical demands of bedside work—helping extend careers, not cut them short.
• Support for developing clinicians: Virtual nurses offer real-time guidance and reinforcement to newer or less experienced bedside nurses, creating a supportive environment that builds confidence and improves care quality.

“Virtual nursing keeps experienced nurses in the workforce by giving them a sustainable path forward in their careers,” said CEO Holly Miller. “They can reduce physical strain, stay connected to patient care, and continue making an impact without sacrificing their health or well-being. What’s more, placing experienced clinicians who are already trusted by the care team into virtual nursing roles significantly strengthens these programs, as the established relationships and mutual respect foster seamless collaboration and better patient outcomes.”

Bedside nurses also report significant benefits from this collaborative model. With virtual nurses handling documentation and administrative tasks, floor nurses can dedicate more time to direct patient care—the reason most entered the profession. Many report reduced stress levels, greater job satisfaction, and a renewed sense of purpose as the burden of juggling multiple responsibilities decreases. This creates a virtuous cycle where both experienced virtual nurses and bedside staff thrive in their complementary roles.

Selecting the right nurses to pioneer the virtual nursing role is extremely important. A strong communication skill set that can transcend the virtual void is essential. Identifying nurses who are held in high regard by their colleagues for their clinical expertise, their professionalism, and their ability to adapt to change and support them in transitioning to the virtual role will ensure the best possible buy-in and support for the virtual nursing model by the entire team. For this reason, outsourcing this important role in the early stages of implementation is strongly discouraged.

Nursing Expertise Drives Better Outcomes for Patients

While addressing the nursing shortage is vital for healthcare operations, the ultimate beneficiaries are patients themselves. When healthcare organizations implement Collette Health’s virtual care solutions to optimize their nursing workforce:

• Clinical quality improves: Teams guided by veteran nurses make fewer errors, respond faster to changes in patient condition, and implement best practices more consistently.
• Patient experiences are enhanced: The combination of attentive bedside care and virtual nursing oversight means more responsive care, better communication, and higher satisfaction scores.
• Safety metrics strengthen: Collette Health’s virtual observation platform has prevented over 100,000 falls annually through dedicated monitoring staff, while the virtual nursing component leverages experienced clinicians to implement broader safety protocols and best practices across care delivery.
• Continuity of care deepens: Virtual nurses build institutional knowledge that survives staff turnover, ensuring consistent approaches to care even as bedside teams evolve.

The financial impact is equally significant—hospitals implementing Collette Health’s solutions report millions in savings through decreased adverse events, reduced turnover costs, and improved quality metrics. While the ROI matters, the truly important part is ensuring patients receive the best care possible.

The Future of Nursing Is Hybrid (and Happier)

Collette Health demonstrates that innovation in healthcare isn’t about replacing human expertise with technology—it’s about creating synergies that amplify both. Their comprehensive approach to virtual patient observation and nursing represents a fundamental shift in how we think about care delivery, workforce sustainability, and institutional knowledge management.

This leadership in transforming healthcare delivery has gained significant industry recognition, with Collette Health recently ranked #1 in the 2025 Best in KLAS Virtual Sitting & Nursing category—a new category that reflects the growing importance of these innovative approaches.

As healthcare continues to evolve under mounting pressures, solutions that address multiple challenges simultaneously are essential. By seamlessly integrating with existing hospital systems and electronic health records, implementation challenges and IT disruption are minimized. This technical foundation enables the platform to effectively reduce administrative demands on bedside staff while creating new career pathways for experienced nurses. The result is retention of critical expertise within the system and measurable improvements in patient outcomes, staff satisfaction, and operational efficiency.

This model points to a future where healthcare careers become more sustainable through technological integration, where physical limitations don’t force expertise out of the system, and where patients benefit from both in-person care and complementary virtual clinical support. It’s a vision that transforms challenges into opportunities for innovation.

Ready to explore how Collette Health’s virtual care platform can transform your healthcare delivery model? Learn more at collettehealth.com.