Guthrie Pulse Center

Board-certified intensivists and critical care nurses with 5+ years of experience provide real-time specialist oversight across all Guthrie ICUs. They monitor vital signs, clinical decision support data, and ventilator settings through integrated two-way audio-visual communication.

Virtual nurses support bedside teams with medication verification, patient and family education, sepsis monitoring, documentation, and clinical mentoring. They serve as experienced colleagues, providing guidance, a second set of eyes and relief from administrative tasks so bedside nurses can focus on hands-on patient care.

Continuous cardiac rhythm monitoring across all connected facilities, with immediate escalation protocols when changes are detected. Telemetry technicians in the Pulse Center provide systemwide coverage that ensures no alarm goes unnoticed.

AI-enabled camera systems give virtual teams the ability to see, hear, and monitor patients in real time. Telesitters use this technology to provide continuous observation for high-risk patients, supporting fall prevention and patient safety while giving bedside staff the ability to focus on direct care. 

A centralized team manages all patient transfers, bed placement, and care coordination across six facilities and two states, including helicopter and ground transport. Patients are matched to the right level of care at the right location, reducing unnecessary transfers and helping patients move through the system more efficiently.

The Guthrie Pulse Center is a hybrid care model that integrates experienced virtual clinical teams with bedside caregivers across multiple Guthrie hospitals. Through a centralized operations hub, five core capabilities work together to create a constant clinical presence across the system, ensuring that every patient has access to specialist oversight and every caregiver has an experienced colleague within reach.

Virtual clinicians support complex decisions, verify high-risk medications and handle documentation so bedside teams can practice at the top of their license. This model doesn't replace bedside caregivers. It extends the reach of the existing workforce by connecting the expertise of an entire health system to every bedside.
 

No. Virtual clinicians are an additional layer of support, not a replacement for any bedside caregiver. They strengthen bedside teams by providing mentoring, documentation, second verification for high-risk medications, patient monitoring, and family communication. This allows bedside caregivers to spend more time on direct, hands-on patient care with an experienced colleague available whenever they need one. Since implementing the Pulse Center, nurse engagement scores and open nursing positions are both outperforming national averages, and nurse turnover has been cut nearly in half.

Through virtual consults, the Pulse Center brings specialist expertise directly to patients at their local Guthrie hospital, rather than transferring them to a larger facility. For example, 86–100% of patients needing kidney specialist care and 50–100% of patients needing pulmonary care are now treated locally. Local hospitals are better positioned to serve the full range of their community's healthcare needs, and patients receive the care they need close to home.

Guthrie has deployed voice-activated security alerts through the camera systems already in patient rooms. Caregivers can notify security by speaking a specific phrase, without reaching for a phone or leaving a patient's side. The system is designed so that the phrases used do not alert the individual causing the concern, allowing security to respond without escalating the situation. Workplace violence against healthcare workers is a growing problem nationally, and this capability gives Guthrie caregivers an additional layer of protection while they provide care.