WellSpan Health continues to be at the forefront of transforming health care in central Pennsylvania, with a strong focus on innovation and care transformation to deliver greater accessibility and affordability for our patients.
Our approach focuses on internal and external initiatives to ensure we are appropriately addressing the needs of our patients. In 2025, innovation often includes some form of artificial intelligence.
Our innovation team, which includes a research and design team and an enterprise digital health team, is dedicated to managing consumer-facing digital ecosystems and leveraging emerging technologies in areas that benefit our organization and our patients.
One of our more recent artificial intelligence implementations at WellSpan includes the launch of the Artisight virtual patient monitoring and nursing platform to increase patient safety and alleviate nurses’ workloads, allowing them to focus on patient care at the bedside.
At WellSpan, the safety and well-being of our patients is top priority, and we are committed to finding a better way to serve them, our team members and our communities.
The platform, powered by artificial intelligence, provides virtual care, quality improvement and care coordination. It helped us launch a pilot of the platform in 2023 at WellSpan Surgery and Rehabilitation Hospital in York, Pennsylvania.
The results have been impressive, and the data that backs up our work continues to support the effort. To date, at the hospital we’ve seen:
- 76.1% reduction in sitter hours
- 31.9% reduction for in-room, unwitnessed patient falls
- 13.5% improvement in the nursing category score for patient experience
- 16.5% improvement in the discharge category score for patient experience
In addition to these stats, we’ve earned team member buy-in as they have seen the benefits firsthand. More than half of team members, 55%, feel the platform increases their workplace flexibility and positively contributes to their own health and well-being. A greater majority, 86%, feels the platform improves patient safety and the quality of care on their individual unit. The support of our front line is critically important for the success of this or any initiative.
Based on the findings of the pilot, the tool has been rolled out to nearly every WellSpan hospital, now covering tasks, such as discharge instructions and sitter duties.
With more than 700 cameras using AI-driven sensors, computer vision, vital sign monitoring and more, our patients can be assured that, in addition to the onsite team, a virtual care expert is available to provide and coordinate an immediate care response. The virtual nurse platform now averages more than 800 hours per month in completing clinical tasks.
Overall, 31% of our admissions at the system level are assisted by the virtual nurse, with some of our hospitals exceeding 50%. Similarly, we know that discharges also take up a lot of administrative time, and we have worked hard to have our virtual nurses streamlining that workflow as well.
As for patient monitoring or “sitters,” as a system, we’re averaging almost 50 virtual patient observations a day, using innovative technology that monitors patient movements with a goal of preventing injuries before they happen. It’s a virtual set of eyes that uses artificial intelligence to work smarter, and ultimately, it helps patients stabilize sooner so they can transition out of the hospital and continue their road to recovery.
Most of this virtual nursing effort is performed out of a centralized hub for the system, allowing team members in some cases to work from home. This provides a flexible work environment for some of our team members, adding to the workforce benefits that our bedside nurses achieve by reducing their administrative burden.
But we’re not stopping there. The evolution from a virtual nursing platform to the opportunities beyond nursing is what really excites us. WellSpan is looking at a variety of ways that AI can benefit other departments and services across the system. Teams meet regularly to explore these options and discuss potential pilots that can use artificial intelligence to make our daily responsibilities easier.
We also believe there are additional clinical responsibilities that can benefit from the virtual platform. We’ve found that in an admission alone there are 135 items documented between a nurse and a patient. If we can automate some of that through voice activation using artificial intelligence, imagine the time and effort it would save.
Ambient listening is an opportunity to expand the reaches of AI tools like Artisight to find additional opportunities to improve and streamline operations. It’s one of many new directions we’re exploring with our partner in rolling out this technology.
At WellSpan, we know that an innovation strategy requires whole-brained thinkers who combine analytical, practical, relational and experimental thought to achieve success. Our approach to tapping into the expansive world of artificial intelligence is having a full understanding of how these tools can, and will, be used to provide the highest quality care for our patients.
Patricia Donley is senior vice president and chief nursing executive at WellSpan Health.
