Baptist Health in the US has expanded its collaboration with Caregility to significantly expand its telehealth capabilities, aimed at enhancing bedside patient care across the system.

This development will see the healthcare organisation double its inpatient telehealth service footprint, deploying Caregility's advanced devices and virtual care platform to over 700 bedsides.

The initiative will integrate virtual clinical resources with in-person bedside care to improve patient outcomes.

More than 500 additional patient rooms at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock, Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock, and Baptist Health-Fort Smith will be equipped with Caregility's new telehealth devices and the Caregility Cloud platform.

These devices are set to support the expansion of virtual nursing and the introduction of virtual support staff and providers in the coming months.

A central hub to bolster virtual nursing and virtual sitters has also been inaugurated at the Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock campus.

Caregility Cloud enables health systems to centralise and scale programmes such as Virtual Nursing, Virtual Patient Observation, Virtual Rounding, and Virtual Consultations in inpatient settings.

This technology not only improves staffing flexibility and workflow efficiency but also facilitates the engagement of remote specialists and interpreters, enhancing patient access and health equity.

The extended partnership builds on Baptist Health's successful virtual admissions and discharge programmes, which are currently supported by more than 300 wall-mounted and cart-based telehealth devices of Caregility in 11 hospitals.

Baptist Health Rehabilitation Institute and system post-acute services president Kourtney Matlock said: “Baptist Health first added virtual care in 2005, and we have continued to advance with the latest technology bringing us to where we are today with our partnership with Caregility.

“This expansion is more than an initiative; it’s a commitment to providing health equity across our state, setting new standards in patient and provider satisfaction, and furthering our mission to be the employer of choice in Arkansas.”

The latest development comes after Baptist Health and Compass Surgical Partners have formed a joint venture to build a network of ambulatory surgery centres (ASCs).