How Smart Hospitals Push Forward From Pilot to Practice

UMass Memorial Health’s Improved Connected Response

UMass Memorial Health has made major investments in digital health initiatives in the past several years, including a brand-new, 20,000-square-foot hub to centralize virtual care within the system. Another flagship facility for the health system, the North Pavillion, opened in 2025 and has 72 patient rooms, all outfitted with smart-room technologies.

“In addition to a digital door display, there are two more inside the room,” says Erica Smith, chief nursing informatics officer and associate vice president of clinical informatics at the five-hospital system in Worcester, Mass. “One is a digital whiteboard and the other is an interactive TV that the patient can control from a smartphone or from the bed. Through the TV, the patient can take part in virtual consults, listen to music, or join interactive mindfulness or education sessions.”

Together, the three displays ensure that care teams “have the right information at the right time, supporting safer and more personalized patient care,” Smith adds. “We have a great nursing team. We have a great physician team. The technology is now a piece of that, and now they have a better ability to coordinate care.”

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The interoperable Caregility platform connects the room to the EHR and different areas of the campus, with a camera mounted above each TV used for remote appointments and real-time video monitoring, which is centralized in a building called the Digital Hub.

“The team in the Digital Hub can move the camera, zoom in and out, and speak to the patient directly. They can even focus in on an IV bag and read the label if needed,” Smith says.

She works closely with Dr. Eric Alper, senior vice president, system chief quality officer and chief clinical informatics officer at UMass Memorial Health. Alper is trained in internal medicine and has been a practicing hospitalist for the past 25 years.

“Since early in my career, I’ve been interested in technology and the ways it can improve the quality of care we provide to patients, as well as improve the experience for our clinicians,” he says.

Alper offers a possible scenario that a care team member might experience: “Let’s say it’s 2 a.m., and a patient starts to deteriorate. A nurse can press a button in the patient’s room and connect with team members from the Digital Hub right away, including an internist, a pharmacist and whoever else is necessary in the moment to make sure the patient has the best possible outcome.”

OhioHealth Teams Up for Design and Implementation

In Columbus, Ohio, it’s already been a few years since Pickerington Methodist Hospital, the newest facility in the OhioHealth network, went live with 90 smart rooms.

A multidisciplinary team at OhioHealth designed the layout and technology specifications for the hospital. Tom Gutman, adviser and senior creative technologist, and Erika Braun, adviser for user experience and product design, were part of the working group that formed in 2021.

Braun described how the team started the process by surveying the needs of multiple stakeholders. “We had to really understand the biggest problems to solve for our health system, such as throughput, quality, staffing and access, but also for our end users — patients, families, both clinical and nonclinical associates — to learn what was not working for them in the current hospital setting and help us imagine what working and receiving care in a smart hospital might look like,” she says.

The team distilled the findings into key pillars that were used to guide the design, which included having a more personal touch (“Patients didn’t want to be treated like a number,” Braun says); efficiencies for clinical staff; and improved communication and connections, so the care team, patients and families would all be more engaged.

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After testing multiple solutions with end users in a mock hospital space, the team implemented a comprehensive, interconnected smart ecosystem combining both digital and nondigital solutions. This includes in-room smart TVs, cameras, digital whiteboards, door signage, virtual nursing and an integrated nurse call system all working together to create a seamless, comfortable and supportive care environment. One of the features includes connected staff badges, so when a care team member walks into a room, their name and credentials immediately appear on the patient’s TV, which then transitions to show important clinical information about the patient’s care, for shared understanding.

In 2025, the team completed 26 more smart rooms, this time in one of the older hospitals in the OhioHealth system.

“We implemented the TV experience with the digital whiteboard and the cameras, as well as the digital door sign,” Gutman says. “So far, we’ve had a great reception, and now we’re strategically mapping which locations could be next. It’s easier to plan for it when you're doing a new build, but we're looking where the greatest needs are for smart rooms in our system and how to best retrofit them with the smart hospital technologies we use — not just based on the physical space, but on the needs of the hospital, care teams and the patients they serve.”

WellSpan Health Makes Integration Central to Care

WellSpan Health, which serves central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, began its exploration of smart-room technology with a pilot program that has since expanded to 681 hospital beds across seven hospitals, with more expected in 2026.

Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive Patricia Donley is one of the leaders of the initiative. Donley, who is also a registered nurse and has held multiple leadership positions, brought her various experiences to the design process.

“We started by looking at our front-line team members and trying to find ways to reduce their administrative burden to free up more time to focus on patients,” she says. “We also wanted a platform that would enhance quality information, enable us to provide better care and lead to improved outcomes.”

Artisight’s platform combines sensors, cameras, speakers and connectivity to medical devices to streamline tasks for nurses. “The solution had to be agnostic, because we implemented it across nine hospitals. Another thing we liked about Artisight is that it has AI, which has helped us advance our quality of care,” Donley says.

The pilot program began with technology on carts, which included TV screens, and audio and video feeds. The technology also connected to sensors on the hospital bed and medical devices. Virtual nurses could then monitor and check in on patients when needed. The pilot led to significant positive results in both patient health and job satisfaction, with a 52% reduction in patient fall rates, and a drastic reduction (92%) in the need for in-room sitters, freeing up staff for other tasks. It also led to improved patient satisfaction rates and increased nurse communication rates.

Since the pilot, WellSpan Health has hardwired rooms with Artisight in several hospitals. Donley and her team are excited about expanding and improving the solution.

“To create the hospital room of the future, integration is really important,” Donley says. “The system is connected to Epic, and the AI piece of Artisight starts detecting patient movement that can alert an observer if a patient gets up or might fall. We can act right away.”