Mariah Taylor

Artificial intelligence advancements have expanded the possibilities for digital tools to improve hospital workflows.

However, many of these technologies are still too new to have a track record of success. Becker’s reached out to four leaders to find which AI projects have garnered the best return on investment in clinical operations.

Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. 

Vi-Anne Antrum, DNP, RN. System Chief Nursing Officer at Cone Health (Greensboro, N.C.): We’ve implemented AI that interfaces directly with patients who have chronic illnesses, like hypertension or diabetes. The AI helps them engage in their own care — prompting them to schedule appointments, check blood sugar or blood pressure, and report those results. So far, we’ve outreached to thousands of patients and have seen nearly 60% schedule and attend a primary care appointment. And keep in mind — these are patients who hadn’t seen a provider in at least three years. That’s a big deal.

We’ve also seen great success with AI in the ambulatory space, particularly with ambient listening for providers. This has allowed our providers to spend less time documenting and more time talking with patients. It’s been a huge satisfier for both parties. Clinicians don’t go into medicine to document for hours, they want to take care of people. Ambient listening reduces burnout and supports well-being. I’m very excited to see that become more widely available to other clinicians.

On the leadership front, using tools like Microsoft Copilot has also been a win. Having it embedded in our suite has helped leaders take meeting notes, create action items, and reduce cognitive load. That frees them up to focus on more strategic issues instead of clerical tasks. That’s been great too.

Russell Cameron, MD. Chief Medical Information Officer and Vice President at PennHighlands Healthcare (Dubois, Pa.): [We use a] software that searches through the chart — both discrete as well as free text data — and presents an assessment and plan to the provider, with hyperlinks back to the parts of the charts where the data was found. 

Return on investment — definite improvement in collections per patient which far exceeded the cost of the software. This is because of increased specificity of diagnoses, increased number of complications or comorbidities and major complications or comorbidities, which helps the coders. Our original analysis showed the hospital’s case mix index increased close to 10%, with an increase in the complications or comorbidities/major complications or comorbidities capture rate of 7%.

Measurable improvement in quality — capturing the above data has helped change our measured quality measures like “mortality rates” because the observed to expected calculations are affected by the patient’s true degree of illness. This also provides a financial ROI thru various value-based reimbursement contracts.

Efficiency — the hospitalists have calculated that this software saves them about 10 minutes per note, or one to two hours per day, per hospitalist. Adoption by our hospitalists is over 95%. Notes are more standardized, which helps other providers find documentation. Although not measured, it is felt that the software decreased physician burnout. 

Nariman Heshmati, MD. Chief Physician and Operations Executive at Lee Physician Group (Fort Myers, Fla.): The one that’s had the best return right now is AI scribes. They’ve been the most reliable to implement, have broad reach and are clearly showing improvement. We’re already seeing reductions in pajama time and that’s been the most impactful so far. 

We’re also exploring AI for message triage, note generation, and visit routing — deciding if a patient should be scheduled for virtual care, in-person visits or self-care. But the data so far hasn’t shown a reduction in workload or message volume, so it’s unclear if those applications will pan out.

Joseph St. Geme III, MD. Physician-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: We’re in the process of implementing an ambient listening tool that is being rolled out as a series of pilots. This tool captures physician-patient/parent discussion during a patient encounter and then summarizes the exchange. I’m anticipating that this tool will have a major impact on physicians and on patients/parents, lightening the load for physicians related to documentation of the history during patient encounters and allowing physicians to engage with patients and parents, rather than focus on the computer. Application of a related tool will allow physicians to respond to patient and parent electronic communication more promptly and with less time and effort. Yet another related tool will allow much more efficient and accurate review and summary of dense patient charts, improving the process involved in consultation on patients with a long and complicated past history.
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Across seven states, at least 25% of hospitals reported they no longer provided obstetric services by 2022, and more than a two-thirds of rural hospitals in eight states were without obstetric services, a recent study found.

The study, published in the July issue of Health Affairs, drew data from the American Hospital Association Annual Surveys and CMS to find the availability of hospital-based obstetric services across all U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The analysis included 4,964 short-term acute care hospitals, including OB-GYN specialty hospitals, open during 2010 and 2022. Researchers calculated the percentage of hospitals that lost obstetric services and those without obstetric services by state, and for rural and urban hospitals within states. 

Researchers found that hospitals offering obstetric services have declined in nearly every state since 2010. The closures were a result of police and resource decisions, despite efforts from professional associations, health systems and community organizations to address obstetric care needs.

Three states had the highest percentage of rural hospitals without obstetrics — Florida at 87%, North Dakota at 81.1% and West Virginia at 70.4%  —- and two states had the highest percentage of urban hospitals without obstetrics — South Dakota at 72.7% and Hawaii at 62.5%.

Here are states with the most obstetric service losses.

States where more than 25% of all hospitals lost obstetric services: 

Iowa: 33.3%

West Virginia: 30%

District of Columbia: 28.6%

Rhode Island: 28.6%

Pennsylvania: 27.7%

South Carolina: 26.9%

Oklahoma: 26.2%

States with highest percentage of lost obstetric services lost in rural counties:

Pennsylvania: 46.2%

South Carolina: 46.2%

West Virginia: 42.9%

Florida: 40%

Iowa: 39.7%

District of Columbia: 28.6%

States with highest percentage of lost obstetric services lost in urban counties:

District of Columbia: 28.6%

Kansas: 30.4%

Rhode Island: 28.6%

Oklahoma: 27.6%

Hawaii: 25%

The states with the largest rural-urban differences in the percentage of hospitals that lost obstetric services: 

New Hampshire: 36.4% (rural), 0% (urban)

Florida: 40.0% (rural), 11.8% (urban)

South Carolina: 46.2% (rural), 20.5% (urban)

Pennsylvania: 46.2% (rural), 22.1% (urban)
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Funding cuts, immigration crackdowns, an executive order declaring English the nation’s official language and a lack of clarification from HHS on medical interpretation requirements have left medical interpretation services in limbo, KFF Health News reported July 16.

Here is what to know:

1. Funding cuts have forced some clinics to reduce services and cut medical interpreters. 

2. Trump’s executive order declaring English as the nation’s official language, and another one that reduces the requirement to provide language access for those who have little to no English proficiency, has caused confusion in medical facilities around what protections remain for patients. HHS has not yet clarified what, if anything, may change. Currently, the rules prohibit the use of unqualified staff, family members or children as acting interpreters during medical visits. 

3. The use of AI in these situations is also up in the air. Currently, AI-generated translations of sensitive medical information must be reviewed by a qualified human interpreter, and some states are using Google Translate to automate translations on their websites.

4. Some states are requiring programs and services to provide equal access to people with limited or no English proficiency, but this is limited to local communities.

5. Advocates are concerned that these factors combined may leave some patients uncomfortable with requested interpreters and many facilities may go without interpreters entirely, the report said. 
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Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is adding improv comedy classes to its medical residents’ training to improve the physician-patient relationship, NPR reported July 16.

The improv workshop teaches skills that can’t be learned from a textbook, a participating resident told the news outlet.

Here’s what to know:

1. The workshop uses improv theater techniques to help residents feel comfortable expressing humor, curiosity and empathy. The skills learned help these physicians think on their feet in evolving situations.

2. One game called “loser ball” played at the workshop involves tossing an imaginary ball around. In many cases, participating residents are told they cannot catch the ball or fail to do so. Games like this help residents have fun failing, according to the report.

3. Other exercises include mirroring each other’s movements and the “yes and” game, both of which can help open the conversation with patients, help residents pay closer attention to patients’ body language and improve communication. 
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Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth named Bela Nand, MD, its first regional chief medical officer for its mid-America region.

Dr. Nand, who stepped into her new role June 29, will serve as the primary CMO for Merriam, Kan.-based AdventHealth Shawnee Mission while also supporting quality, safety and physician engagement across the mid-America region, according to a July 7 system news release. She will also provide CMO support to AdventHealth Ottawa (Kan.).

She most recently served as CMO at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth’s facilities in Hinsdale, Ill., and La Grange, Ill.
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Bentonville, Ark.-based Alice L. Walton School of Medicine welcomed its inaugural cohort of students this month, NBC affiliate KNWA reported July 14.

Here’s what to know:

1. The school’s four-year medical curriculum integrates traditional medical training with arts, humanities and whole health principles, according to its website.

2. The school is waiving tuition for its first five cohorts of students. The first cohort of 48 students will graduate in 2029.

3. The school was founded in 2021 and was granted preliminary accreditation status from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in October 2024.
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Newport (R.I.) Hospital named Tenny Thomas, MD, president and chief medical officer.

Dr. Thomas stepped into his role at the hospital, part of Providence, R.I.-based Brown University Health, July 14, according to a system news release. Previously, he served as chief medical officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth (Mass.) since 2018.
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Memphis, Tenn.-based Baptist Memorial Health Care’s BestHealth Employee Well-being Program recently named two new leaders to the C-suite who are looking to take the program beyond hospital walls.

BestHealth is a wellness program designed to support staff in taking control of their health by providing a number of holistic programs. Since its launch in 2018, the program has reduced hospital admissions by 2.2% and 30-day hospital readmissions by 10.2%. It has also cut avoidable diseases by 29%.

With so much success, the program added two inaugural leaders in June: Lia Lansky was named chief well-being officer, and Jake Lancaster, MD, was named chief medical officer. 

Becker’s spoke with Ms. Lansky and Dr. Lancaster to discuss their strategic vision for BestHealth in the coming years.

Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Question: What are some of your priorities for 2025 as you step into your new positions?

Lia Lansky: Since stepping into this role, we’ve really been focused on developing more strategic approaches to better connect our Baptist Medical Group with our BestHealth initiatives. One of our goals is also to get out into the community more and extend that support to our patients. Up to this point, we’ve really focused on our team members — more than 15,000 of them — and now we’re looking to broaden that reach.

Dr. Jake Lancaster: As the CMO for both our medical group and our well-being program, I’m really looking to integrate those two areas more intentionally. There’s a lot we’ve done for our team members that we can apply to our patients, and vice versa — things we’ve done in terms of quality and outcomes that could benefit our internal teams.

Q: What initiatives are you looking to implement or expand in the next year? What’s the strategic thinking behind those?

LL: One major goal is expanding our program to other organizations. We’ve had such strong metrics here at Baptist, and we want to share that success more broadly. We also just launched the BestHealth Virtual Clinic for Baptist Medical Group patients who aren’t Baptist employees. It’s embedded in our EMR via Epic, and it allows patients to choose services like nutrition, exercise support, or tobacco cessation directly from their login. This helps boost our quality scores, and it gives providers a new resource to offer their patients.

JL: I’m also really excited about our Dietary Transformation Program. We’ve been running it as a research study with a subgroup of our employees. It focuses on prediabetic and diabetic populations and explores how intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating strategies improve outcomes. Now that it’s wrapping up, we want to scale it more broadly. The early results are great, and we’ll be sharing more soon.

Q: What have been some of the most effective initiatives from the BestHealth program? 

LL: BestHealth has been evolving over the last eight years, and we’ve worked hard to align our well-being efforts with broader organizational goals. We’ve focused on physical and emotional wellness and recently added financial well-being. That full integration helps us control costs and support a healthier, more productive workforce. For example, while national health plan costs were projected to rise by 6–9% last year, we limited our increase to just 1% in 2024. That’s a major win.

I’d also add that we’ve seen record-high engagement. Last year, 97% of our health-plan-qualified employees completed a biometric screening, and 92% followed up with an annual wellness visit. And for those who completed a wellness visit two years in a row, we saw a 9% reduction in healthcare costs.

Q: What else would you like to share?

JL: I’m really energized by this role. As the CMO for both the medical group and now in the well-being space, I get to help our providers from all angles, reducing burnout, improving physical and mental health, and ultimately helping them show up at their best for our patients. That benefits quality and outcomes across the board.

LL: I’m truly honored to work for an organization like Baptist that genuinely prioritizes wellness. It starts with our CEO and flows through to our vice presidents and key stakeholders. On our team, we have nurses, well-being specialists, and dietitians. It’s a complete population health model, and I feel very fortunate to be part of it.
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The newly opened Charlotte, N.C.-based Wake Forest University School of Medicine is leaning into nontraditional teaching methods for medical students, NC Health News reported July 15. 

The city’s first medical school, a public-private partnership between Charlotte-based Atrium Health and Wexford Science & Technology in Baltimore, opened last month and is welcoming its first class of 49 physicians this week. The school is a part of The Pearl, Charlotte’s 20-acre, $1.5 billion medical innovation district.

Here are some of the school’s nontraditional approaches to physician education:

1. Students will practice on high-fidelity “manikins,” which are computerized patient dummies that can breathe, cough, talk and go into cardiac arrest. The manikins represent patients as young as infants born at 27 weeks. 

2. Students will learn about the human body through virtual touchscreens, rather than cadaver labs.

3. The medical school’s curriculum is centered on real-life clinical scenarios, rather than traditional lectures. 

4. Students will start seeing patients at Atrium Health’s Carolinas Medical Center on day 1 as part of the school’s focus to give students early hands-on experience with patient-centered care.

Many of these methods are used at other medical schools, but, the report said, The Pearl is building on the success of those models. 
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The Joint Associations Group on Indirect Costs, a coalition of 10 universities, medical centers and other research institutions, sent its reimbursement model recommendations to Congress and the executive branch.

“Although no model for recovering indirect costs is perfect, I believe we have arrived at the best solution for helping maintain American global leadership in research and innovation, keeping our research enterprise strong across all types and sizes of institutions, and providing greater accountability to the American taxpayer,” former White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier, PhD, who helped lead the coalition and development of the model, said in a July 11 American College of Education news release.

Here is what to know:

1. The final Financial Accountability in Research model accommodates the differing operational and research support needed by institutions to conduct research on behalf of the federal government, according to the release. The model employs a total-project-costs calculation to determine indirect costs; provides greater accountability and transparency about the true costs of sponsored research by accounting for the differences in scope or discipline between projects; and eliminates the intensive negotiating process between university-wide indirect cost rates and federal oversight which will provide greater efficiency, the release said.

2. The final model is designed to replace the current facilities and administrative cost structure the federal government uses. Now that the model is finalized, the coalition will host a town hall webinar July 15 to present it to the research community. 

3. Medical schools, teaching hospitals and research institutions have warned that the National Institutes of Health’s plan to impose a 15% cap on reimbursements for indirect research costs would significantly limit research nationwide, reducing access to clinical trials and stall medical breakthroughs. A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction to block the cap, which the Trump administration plans to appeal.

4. The members of the JAG coalition are the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Council on Education, the Association of Independent Research Institutes, the Council on Governmental Relations, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Science Philanthropy Alliance, and the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
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