Colorado hospital adding nearly 800 cameras in patient rooms to add telehealth options

At the start of her shift, nurse and care manager Stephie Riedmuller, RN at AdventHealth Castle Rock gets ready to check in on her patients.

"We will come in in the mornings, and we have a lot of new patients that have come into the ER overnight and been admitted to the floor, and we can get them into our system very quickly," Riedmuller said.

As technology advances, health systems across the country, including AdventHealth, are starting to look at rounds through a new lens. At AdventHealth in Colorado, that means utilizing telehealth in patient rooms. This year, AdventHealth says it will roll out close to 800 cameras in hospital rooms and urgent care centers across the state to add a virtual layer of care. AdventHealth says this is not meant to replace any staff or bedside visits, but instead adds more access to more care providers faster. Advent says this technology can also make it easier for family members to have a virtual presence during medical conversations. 

Patient Tanya Baird says she came into AdventHealth through the ER, and although there was a long waiting period of what she says was six hours, she was able to see a specialist for her breathing concerns in half that time.

"He said he could hear my breathing and could see my labored breathing. And we had a really good conversation about how I was doing and what he wanted to do with admitting me. I felt like it was extremely efficient that we had a pulmonary doctor having that conversation with me in the ER versus not an ER doctor; we had the specialist be able to come into my room, in a way," Baird said.

But with so many Wi-Fi-connected cameras in what can be a deeply personal setting, some potential patients, including an expectant mother, shared their privacy concerns online and with CBS Colorado about camera access in the rooms. AdventHealth Castle Rock's Chief Medical Officer Jesse Loar says he's worked to address similar concerns.

"These cameras aren't able to record. There's no storage. They never record. There are lots of lights that are pretty clear about when the camera is actually on," Loar went on to say, "There has been a ton of work around firewalls, around making sure that all of this technology is safe."

Loar says patients can elect not to use the camera during their visit, but when asked if patients could physically cover the camera's lens, Loar said, "We don't, mostly because of the cost of the technology and the sensitivity of the technology."

Meanwhile, Riedmuller says in her experience, the reaction from patients has been mostly positive. 

"I think I have one patient who said I would prefer not to have the camera on, which I respect. But other than that, they're very happy to have someone come into the room, virtually talk to them, and ask questions. And I think for me, that's another way for us to show the patients that we're here for them," Riedmuller said.

When it comes to staffing, Loar says he does not expect this to replace nurses, explaining, "Helping a patient get up and go to the bathroom, providing medications, providing the comfort of putting hands on standing with a patient holding their hands, those things we're never going to be able to replace with a camera," adding, "It would mostly be those when a patient first enters the hospital, or first, or is getting ready to leave the hospital. There's an opportunity for a virtual nurse to help assist with that process."

And as similar tech expands across the country, patients and staff will have to decide what they're comfortable with.

"Technology, I trust in general. I just worry about security," Baird said, "[Staff] get to me quicker, and I'm thinking that some of that probably has to do with the technology."

AdventHealth says they expect all cameras to be activated by this summer.