Everything You Need to Know About Virtual Sitting
From fall prevention to staff relief — here’s what you should know
August 11, 2025
In an effort to combat rising healthcare challenges, such as staffing shortages and rising patient acuity, hospitals have begun turning to new, evidence-proven solutions. One of these services is virtual sitting.
Virtual sitting brings continuous, remote observation that prevents adverse events, quickens intervention and reduces falls, which is the leading cause of injury in hospitals. This comprehensive guide explores how virtual sitting works, its benefits, practical use cases and insights that demonstrate its impact on patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
What is Virtual Sitting
Virtual sitting leverages HIPAA-compliant video technology to connect trained, remote observers with patients in real time. Instead of an in-person sitter at a bedside, hospitals rely on a compliant and customizable tech stack that readily integrates with legacy systems, including interoperability with devices and electronic medical records. As a result, virtual sitters can monitor multiple routines and stay alert to movement patterns, behaviors or vital signs that indicate distress.
Implementation of this service can be fast and easy, requiring minimal training. By relieving staff of observation duties, bedside teams can prioritize other direct patient care and clinical tasks. More coverage means faster intervention, ultimately reducing errors and improving hospital-wide outcomes.
How Virtual Sitting Works
When hospitals find an ideal telehealth service provider, they’ll likely follow these four steps:
- Discovery
Your solution provider will take the time to understand your hospital’s needs and requirement to create a custom virtual sitting care solution. They’ll help you fill in gaps and streamline workflows. - Training and Implementation
This step ensures a seamless transition into easy-to-use platforms and an augmented service suite that complements your hospital’s existing models. - Ongoing Support
Through 24/7 support, you’ll soon notice that the new service drives positive patient results across all facets of care and safety. - Outcome Assessment
Regular check-ins are key to maintaining continuous improvement and maximizing efficiency and quality of care.
Key Benefits of Virtual Sitting
Research has shown that lack of resources and staffing make it nearly impossible for nurses to work top of license. On that same note, a nurse’s inability to provide care decreases their job satisfaction, increases burnout symptoms and increases turnover intentions.
Virtual sitting offers a variety of advantages for hospitals and patients, including:
- Elevated Patient Safety
Continuous observation deters falls, wandering and self-harm, reducing the incidence of injury. This early detection of distress enables quicker clinical responses, minimizing escalation. - Resource Optimization
Virtual sitters become an extension of your team. With their support, in-person clinicians can focus on assessments, treatments and complex procedures. - Cost Reduction
By streamlining sitter coverage and reducing fall-related complications, hospitals can lower operational expenditures. - Enhanced Staff Satisfaction
Virtual sitting lifts a weight from several frontline workers, ultimately helping to reduce burnout and foster higher retention among teams.
Virtual sitting adapts to nearly every patient department and their needs. These can be dementia care, suicide risk monitoring, post-operative observation and routine check-ins.
Integration with Virtual Care Services
Hospitals may also choose to pair virtual sitting with other remote solutions such as:
- Tele-Critical Care
- Virtual Nursing
- Tele-Neurology
- Tele-Stroke
- Virtual Sepsis Unit
By integrating virtual sitting with these services, hospitals build a robust telehealth ecosystem that spans across several emergency interventions. As a result, care teams gain seamless collaboration and shared protocols across diverse patient populations.
Strategic Considerations for Launching Virtual Sitting
Before deploying virtual sitting in your hospital, consider how the program fits under your broader patient safety and workforce strategies.
- Safety Priorities
Identify high-risk units where continuous observation is mostly needed and could prevent adverse events. - Staffing Models
Evaluate how virtual sitters can complement existing roles. This can free up nursing assistants, temporary sitters and other supporting nursing teams. - Technology Readiness
Ensure your hospital is equipped with secure video infrastructure and reliable connectivity. Don’t forget to consider how the technology would integrate with nurse call systems. - Be Transparent
Virtual sitting won’t come in and erase your existing care team. Ensure you communicate with frontline workers about the value of virtual sitting and the status of the project. Training will also be critical to nurture the relationship between in-person and virtual team members. - Define Success Metrics
Establishing clear KPIs before launch is critical for continuous improvement. Common metrics include fall reduction rates, staffing cost savings, average response time to alerts, staff satisfaction and burnout indicators and patient experience scores. - Launch a Thoughtful Pilot
It’s of best interest to being with a pilot focused in a high-volume unit where observation demands are high. Paired with metric tracking, adjustments during this phase will strengthen the program’s foundation in the long run. - Open Communication
Transparency with frontline teams are key to keeping a positive relationship. Sharing wins and providing feedback not only boosts morales but also reinforces the program’s value - Align Stakeholders
Virtual sitting touches on several domains, so early alignment is essential. Engaging with nursing leadership, IT, finance teams, executives and more ensures that the program is not seen as a one-sided initiative and brings everyone’s expertise and thoughts to the table.
With the right strategy and planning, virtual sitting can turn into a reality for your hospital. Facilities that invest in thoughtful implementation are better positioned to reap the full benefits of the clinical solution.
The Time Is Now
Virtual sitting is one of several telehealth solutions that represents a proactive and cost-effective approach to patient safety and operational efficiency. The combination of advanced technology, trained observers and seamless clinical workflows sets a high standard for hospitals worldwide.
To learn more about deploying virtual sitting in your organization, contact Intercept Telehealth today.
