Healthcare organizations are increasingly seeking scalable solutions that improve access, boost efficiency and support workforce well-being. At Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine, two such initiatives are reshaping care delivery: hospital-at-home and ambient AI documentation.
As part of an enterprisewide care transformation strategy, Penn Medicine is rethinking delivery through two key initiatives: the Penn Acute Care at Home (PATH) program and the rollout of ambient AI documentation tools, Raina Merchant, MD, vice president and chief transformation officer at the Perelman School of Medicine and executive director of Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Care Transformation and Innovation, told Becker’s.
The PATH forward
Penn Medicine recently launched its PATH program, which transitions eligible acute care into the home setting. The program, which treats conditions such as pneumonia, is designed to alleviate hospital congestion and improve patient satisfaction. Its development, Dr. Merchant said, was informed by clinical evidence, operational insights and patient preferences.
“Our decision was really informed by a combination of clinical evidence, operational insights and really patient preference,” she said. “During the pandemic, we saw firsthand that hospital-level care could be delivered safely and effectively at home with strong clinical outcomes.”
Dr. Merchant noted that many patients expressed feeling more “comfortable, more in control, more supported” while recovering at home — validating the push to scale the model. With a foundation in place through Penn Medicine at Home’s non-acute services, PATH emerged as a natural extension.
“We think of this as reimagining care. Instead of requiring patients to come to and stay in the hospital, we’re bringing the hospital to our patients,” she said.
To gauge success, the health system is monitoring traditional metrics such as readmission rates and length of stay, as well as broader indicators like patient experience, workforce satisfaction and geographic reach.
“The PATH program is insurance agnostic — it doesn’t matter how someone would pay for inpatient care. It’s about clinical appropriateness and need,” Dr. Merchant said.
Embracing ambient AI
While the PATH program transforms where care is delivered, Penn Medicine is also rethinking how care is documented — through ambient AI tools aimed at alleviating clinicians’ charting burden.
“What’s been surprising and encouraging is how quickly clinicians have embraced it,” Dr. Merchant said. “There might have been initial questions about how to incorporate it into their practice, but once they saw documentation time drop and they could focus more on patient interaction — it became clear.”
What began as a top-down deployment has transformed into a clinician-driven movement, she said.
“It isn’t a technology we’ve had to push. There’s been a lot of pull. Clinicians are asking for it, recommending it to peers, and seeing it as a meaningful solution to a long-standing pain point.”
Although Penn’s emergency department has not yet implemented the tool, Dr. Merchant — an emergency physician — said the concept strongly resonates across specialties.
“This idea of talking to patients while trying to document at the same time is one that resonates with every clinician,” she said.
To assess impact, Penn is tracking after-hours charting trends and provider satisfaction surveys.
“Early results show real decreases in after-hours charting and increases in provider-related satisfaction,” Dr. Merchant said. “We hear things like, ‘I’m leaving work earlier,’ ‘less pajama time,’ and ‘I can actually listen more during the visit.’ That’s a big signal we’re moving in the right direction.”
Transformation at scale
These programs are part of a broader transformation agenda at Penn, which uses a portfolio-based approach to manage multiple systemwide initiatives.
“We don’t treat these as siloed efforts,” Dr. Merchant said. “We look for opportunities to share infrastructure, learnings and support models across projects. Less of the ‘here’s the pilot’ and more of, ‘how are we doing this at the system level?’”
One of the most important lessons from Penn’s transformation journey: the value of co-creation with clinical teams to address frontline challenges.
“Our success in transformation is as much about change management and trust as it is about the technology,” Dr. Merchant said. “It’s not just about what we’re building — it’s about who we build it with and how it improves care.”
