New 'virtual ward' at Cork hospital allows patients to be treated at home   

In Cork's Mercy University Hospital, the team has introduced a new way of caring for patients from their own beds called virtual wards.

The initiative allows clinically stable patients to receive hospital-level care at home, under the guidance of a consultant and led by nurses, using remote monitoring technology.

MUH’s virtual ward is the designated site for the South-West region, part of a wider HSE national programme developed following successful pilots elsewhere.

The approach frees up hospital bed days, a significant benefit for the hospital and the region at times when hospitals across Cork are frequently overcrowded.

Jennifer O’Connell, a staff nurse in the virtual ward, told The Echo: “It’s for patients in the hospital who are well enough that they could go home, maybe they’re waiting for scans or the doctors want to monitor their blood pressure and keep an eye on them.

“Sometimes the benefit of staying in hospital can be outweighed by the risk. Hospital acquired infections pose a huge risk for people. If you don’t absolutely need to be in a hospital, it’s better to be going home.”

Equipment

Patients are sent home from the hospital with all the equipment they need to keep track of their condition, allowing hospital staff to care for them just like if they were in the building.

“It’s 24/7, they can contact us at night or weekends. We send them home with machines to check their blood pressure and temperature, they submit it themselves on an iPad,” said Ms O’Connell.

“It’s a big kit we send with them, it has an iPad, a blood pressure machine, a pulse oximeter, a thermometer, and we also can send a weighing scales or ECG machine or a peak flow meter depending on the patients’ needs.”

Afterwards, the equipment is picked up from their homes and delivered back to the hospital.

“As part of the service this equipment is collected by An Post after you’re discharged. You’ll receive a text to organise it and they come and sort it all out.”

Ms O’Connell said it doesn’t matter how far from the hospital the patient lives, once they have good internet.

“We have a coverage map that we check. We look at their Eircode and what carrier they’re with, and if their coverage is good then it doesn’t matter where they are.”

She did say some patients have been a bit apprehensive about the idea.

Happy 

“Certain people can be a bit sceptical about the technology. But, once you go through it and explain that they’re still an in-patient, most are happy enough. Younger patients or people who have kids in particular are always very happy to go home.”

Anna Higgins, service improvement lead for the virtual ward programme, explained that the initiative started in University Hospital Limerick and St Vincent’s in Dublin. A decision was then made to roll it out beyond these two pilot sites.

Mercy University H

ospital was chosen as the site for the HSE South-West region, and the programme began in November 2025.

“We’ve had lots of activity since then, about 255 bed days have been saved and we’ve cared for over 50 patients,” said Ms Higgins.

She said that they are receiving feedback all the time.

“Common themes emerging are that people are sleeping better at home, but they’re very reassured that they can contact the ward whenever they need to.

“They say the technology is easy to use, but again if they’re struggling they know they can contact the team. They’re still under the care of hospital consultants in the virtual ward.”

One patient who had been in touch with the virtual ward team about their condition was admitted back into hospital, so re-admission is always possible.

Expanded

They have already expanded the service since it was set up, and are planning to keep growing it, Ms Higgins said.

“We started our ward with two clinical pathways, respiratory and cardiology, and we’re now taking people awaiting procedures, and with flu or covid. We’re hoping to develop more pathways and increase the occupancy on the ward. At the moment we can care for 10 patients at any one time. We would like to get that up to 25.”

The service is provided primarily by nursing staff, with medical teams doing the rounds just like if they were treating patients in physical hospital beds. Some support with charts and discharges is also provided by administrative staff.

“It’s quite exciting for nursing staff like Jennifer because it’s a new way of working. We’re pivoting from physically assessing to doing it through the phone, video calls, receiving the data from people at home so it’s very different.

“There’s a lot of co-ordination and teamwork involved.”