JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

This ViewPoint examines national virtual hospitals as health-system policy innovations responding to rising pressure on inpatient services driven by population aging, multimorbidity, and emergency admissions. Global evidence across tele–intensive care unit (tele-ICU), hospital-at-home, virtual-ward, and telestroke models indicates that outcomes are mixed and highly dependent on patient selection, infrastructure maturity, workforce capacity, governance, and digital equity. Saudi Arabia’s Seha Virtual Hospital is examined as a national-scale case study of virtual hospital deployment, demonstrating large-scale operational feasibility and rapid service expansion, yet with limited independent evidence on comparative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, workforce impact, and equity outcomes. National virtual hospitals are best framed not as established solutions but as evidence-generating policy experiments. Successful scale-up depends on embedding rigorous evaluation alongside implementation, with explicit assessment of clinical outcomes, economic sustainability, digital inclusion, and workforce well-being. This ViewPoint outlines key policy and evaluation principles to guide governments and health-system leaders in the safe, equitable, and sustainable deployment of national virtual hospital programs.