A 32-year-old man presented to the hospital with a comminuted midshaft femoral fracture after a bicycle accident. Imaging suggested the fracture was pathologic and an open biopsy specimen was submitted to pathology for intraoperative consultation.

A 42-year-old man with a history of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol use disorder and anxiety disorder, was seen in the emergency department (ED) after a high-risk suicide attempt by hanging. The patient was agitated and attempted to escape from the ED while on an involuntary psychiatric commitment. The ED staff treated him as a “routine boarder” awaiting an inpatient bed, with insufficiently robust behavioral monitoring.

This piece discusses virtual nursing, an approach to care that incorporates an advanced practice nurse into hospital-based patient care through telehealth. Virtual nursing increases patient safety and may enable expert nurses to continue to meet patient needs in future staffing shortages.

Concern over patient safety issues associated with inadequate tracking of test results has grown over the last decade, as it can lead to delays in the recognition of abnormal test results and the absence of a tracking system to ensure short-term patient follow-up.^1,2 Missed abnormal tests and the lack of necessary clinical follow-up can lead to a late diagnosis.

A 50-year-old unhoused patient presented to the Emergency Department (ED) for evaluation of abdominal pain, reportedly one day after swallowing multiple sharp objects. Based on the radiologic finding of an open safety pin or paper clip in the distal stomach, he was appropriately scheduled for urgent esophagogastroduodenoscopy and ordered to remain NPO (nothing by mouth) to reduce the risk of aspirating gastric contents.

A 56-year-old woman presented to the emergency department (ED) with shaking, weakness, poor oral intake and weight loss, constipation for several days, subjective fevers at home, and mild pain in the chest, back and abdomen. An abdominal x-ray confirmed a large amount of stool in the colon with no free air and her blood leukocyte count was 11,500 cells/μL with 31% bands. She received intravenous fluids but without any fecal output while in the ED.

A 55-year-old man presented in hypotensive shock, presumably due to bacterial pneumonia superimposed on COPD. The nurse placed an arterial line appropriately in the patient’s radial artery for hemodynamic monitoring, but this line was inadvertently used to infuse an antibiotic. The patient experienced acute arterial thrombosis with resulting hand ischemia but responded to rapid thrombolytic and anticoagulant therapy.

An elderly patient (Patient A) with a recent diagnosis of B cell lymphoma with central nervous system (CNS) involvement was discharged home with the home medications belonging to his hospital roommate (Patient B). By the time his family had discovered the error, Patient A had taken three doses of the incorrect prescription. An investigation revealed that both patients brought their own unique home medications which were not on the hospital’s formulary, and Patient A was inadvertently given both his home bag of medications and Patient B’s.

A 63-year-old man presented from a skilled nursing facility (SNF) with shortness of breath and was treated for mild heart failure exacerbation. An echocardiogram was performed but results were pending on discharge, with anticipation that the patient’s primary care provider would follow up the results. Two weeks later, the patient was readmitted from the SNF and was found to have endocarditis and infected pacemaker wires.

Seeking a sustainable process to enhance their hospitals’ response to sepsis, a multidisciplinary team at WellSpan Health oversaw the development and implementation of a system that uses customized electronic health record (EHR) alert settings and a team of remote nurses to help frontline staff identify and respond to patients showing signs of sepsis. When the remote nurses, or Central Alerts Team (CAT), receive an alert, they assess the patient’s information and collaborate with the clinical care team to recommend a response.