5 Ready-to-Scale Solutions for Improving Care Delivery

In episode 10 of the second season of “The West Wing,” one character tells another a story about a man who falls into a hole. A friend of his happens upon the situation and jumps in with him. When the man asks why, the friend explains that he's been in that hole before and knows how to escape.

Chris DeRienzo, M.D., president of the AHA’s Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) and chief physician executive and senior vice president at the AHA, recalls that episode of his favorite show when explaining the purpose of the West Health Accelerator, a three-year initiative launched by the AHA and West Health in April 2026 to help hospitals and health systems operationalize and scale proven technologies across care environments to improve patient outcomes and support care teams.

“There are hospitals out there struggling with challenges that can’t afford the time or resources to try 14 different things,” DeRienzo said. “The entire construct of this Accelerator is that people are standing in holes all around this country, and there are people who’ve been in that hole before and know how to get out of it.”

Streamlining Tech Adoption Through Shared Learning

The Accelerator is facilitating collaboration and shared learning among hospitals and health systems nationwide to streamline the adoption of technologies that enhance care delivery, quality and safety. Specifically, the initiative focuses on three priority areas where technology can drive impact at scale: electronic health record (EHR) optimization, virtual care and AI utilization and integration. Participants can learn from others with real-world experience through beacon sites (hospitals and health systems successfully implementing solutions with measurable results), champions (clinical, operational and technology leaders with hands-on implementation experience) and collaboratives (communities through which hospitals work side-by-side to refine implementation approaches).

Rather than asking hospitals to start from scratch, the Accelerator is identifying technology-enabled approaches already producing results in real-world care settings and translating that experience into practical pathways others can adopt and scale. The first five solutions span some of healthcare’s most persistent clinical, operational and workforce challenges:

1 | AI-Driven Sepsis Detection and Management

This solution improves inpatient outcomes by using AI-powered detection to identify early signs of sepsis, delivering notifications directly in EHR workflows and linking alerts to evidence-based order sets and escalation protocols.

Example

Ochsner Health in New Orleans has deployed an Epic-embedded, AI-powered sepsis predictive model. By combining the technology with clinical workflow redesign and robust multidisciplinary governance, the health system has achieved a 20% reduction in risk-adjusted sepsis mortality.

2 | EHR-Embedded Postpartum Hemorrhage Prevention and Response

Rapid recognition and consistent care team response to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) can significantly improve patient outcomes. This solution supports effective, consistent clinician responses through automated risk identification, embedded clinical guidance within obstetric workflows and quantitative blood loss tracking.

Example

In 2022, WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina, implemented EHR-integrated automated PPH risk assessment tools, quantitative blood loss tracking and guided response pathways into clinical workflows. Consequently, the health system has achieved sustained reductions in obstetric hemorrhage, fewer severe PPH events and stronger alignment with standard team-based responses.

3 | Technology-Enabled Care for Older Adult Inpatients

When hospitalized, older adults are more likely to experience complications, longer lengths of stay and greater variability in care. This solution combines technology, clinical standards and operational workflows to create a unified care model for older patients that proves predictable, easy to scale and aligned with the needs of older adults and their care teams.

Example

Boston-based Mass General Brigham has improved care for older patients with evidence-based EHR workflows that automate dose-reduction defaults for nearly 40 high-risk medications, standardize geriatric nursing plans of care, incorporate age-specific orders and discharge protocols and track outcomes at both the hospital and system levels.

4 | Virtual Nursing for Admission and Discharge

Admissions and discharges are critical junctures where variation, delays and documentation issues can significantly affect operational performance, patient safety and patient experience. By shifting high-variation admission and discharge tasks to centralized or remote nurses using secure audio-video technology, virtual nursing supports consistency and safe transitions.

Example

Hackensack Meridian Health in Edison, New Jersey, launched virtual nursing across 18 hospitals and more than 500 care locations to improve outcomes and workforce sustainability. One year after implementation, the health system reported an 11.6% reduction in length of stay, a 0.68% decrease in readmissions and a two-point reduction in falls with injury.

5 | AI Ambient Listening and Clinical Documentation for Ambulatory Care

Manual documentation and after-hours charting contribute to clinician burnout and detract from direct patient interaction. Ambient AI that integrates into ambulatory workflows automatically captures conversations in real time, allowing clinicians to connect with patients face-to-face while minimizing after-hours charting and manual data entry.

Example

Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan, implemented an ambient AI solution system-wide to improve documentation workflows and support more focused patient care. During an initial 90-day pilot, clinicians reported that after-hours documentation decreased from 4.3 hours to 2.2 hours per week. In addition, 90% reported more focused patient attention, and 85% experienced increased job satisfaction.

By the end of 2026, the Accelerator plans to identify five additional solutions ready for broader adoption, creating an initial portfolio of 10 proven approaches hospitals and health systems can learn from and implement.

The larger goal is to create a national learning network in which hospitals don’t have to solve the same problems independently. Instead, organizations that have successfully implemented technology can help others move faster, avoid common pitfalls and adapt proven approaches to their own care environments.

Helena Bonfitto, AHA’s Director leading the Accelerator’s work emphasized the ultimate reach the team is targeting: “At the end of three years, we aim to reach many hundreds of hospitals and help countless thousands of patients all over the country experience better outcomes at lower costs.”

For more information and to sign up for updates on upcoming learning opportunities, events, resources and news, visit nationalaccelerator.org/contact.