Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jul 28, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 31, 2026 - Sep 25, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Clinical Utility and Operational Efficiency of the Smart Virtual Family-Engaged Rounding (Smart-VFER) System in a Tertiary Hospital Inpatient Ward: A Prospective Survey-Based Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Communication barriers between healthcare providers and off-site family caregivers frequently delay clinical decision-making in inpatient wards, a challenge exacerbated by recent shifts toward comprehensive nursing care and post-pandemic visitation limits.
Objective:
This study evaluated the clinical utility and programmatic impact of an internally developed, Electronic Medical Record (EMR)-integrated mobile platform—the Smart Virtual Family-Engaged Rounding (Smart-VFER) system—on caregiver satisfaction, healthcare provider workload, and operational indicators in a tertiary hospital inpatient ward.
Methods:
This prospective, survey-based study evaluated 50 caregiver-patient pairs in an inpatient ward. Caregiver satisfaction was measured using a structured 6-item survey on a 5-point Likert scale (maximum score: 30 points) before and after system implementation. Average rounding duration per patient, caregiver usability, and nursing staff satisfaction were also quantified. Operational indicators were collected across 40 days of deployment.
Results:
The total caregiver satisfaction score significantly improved from 21.92 (SD 4.93) pre-implementation to 24.94 (SD 1.94) post-implementation (P<.001). Structured analysis revealed significant improvements in both provider-to-caregiver and caregiver-to-provider communication, as well as overall medical service satisfaction (P<.05). The rounding duration per patient remained unchanged after system implementation (2.43, SD 0.50 min vs 2.44, SD 0.64 min; P=.95), and the total clinical interaction time trended downward by reducing the need for separate face-to-face interviews (2.70, SD 0.50 min vs 2.53, SD 0.70 min; P=.23). Nursing staff also reported that the introduction of the system reduced their workload associated with communicating with caregivers. Operational logs revealed a 76.10% (SD 26.39%) connection rate with an average caregiver waiting time of 8.00 (SD 5.98) minutes.
Conclusions:
The Smart-VFER system effectively resolved structural communication barriers for off-site caregivers—particularly working-age—without imposing additional clinical workloads on physicians or nursing staff.
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