Pinoys to be tapped as 'virtual nurses, sitters' for US hospitals

MANILA — Filipino sitters and nurses can soon work and take care of patients in the US while staying here in the country.

US company Worldwide HealthStaff and Worldwide Resource Solutions is bringing an innovation to the Philippine and US healthcare, to be headquartered in Quezon City.

Under this, a Filipino sitter will be using laptops and cameras to 'sit' patients in US hospitals. The sitter will be connected to the US healthcare system and can communicate to caregivers and nurses in the hospital.

"We will have staff members here working in our location here, connected with health facilities in America in real time, 24/7, 365, delivering services where a sitter here have a direct connection with a nurse and caregiver in a facility in the US for instantaneous communication when required," said Ron Hoppe, CEO of Worldwide HealthStaff Solutions and President of Worldwide Resource Solutions

This is the first time virtual sitting will be possible in the country. A sitter can monitor up to 15 patients at any given time, making it less laborious and more efficient.

Patients will be monitored through cameras, and the sitter can immediately alert nurses and caregivers to prevent accidents like falling.

"You can see there is tremendous efficiency as we can monitor a significant number of patients with a significantly lower number of workers," Hoppe said.

For their initial run, they will be employing 20 sitters, but this is expected to grow rapidly. The initiative will soon expand to hire virtual nurses doing non-direct tasks.

"It is estimated that registered nurses spend 25 percent of their time each shift doing non-direct care activities, things like writing an admission to a facility, doing a discharge, these are things virtual nurses could do remotely because it doesn't require them to be in direct contact," Hoppe added.

The setup will provide additional employment to Filipino sitters and nurses while filling in gaps in the US healthcare industry.