As health systems continue the push toward safer, more sustainable care environments, clinical informatics executives say 2026 will hinge on two increasingly interconnected forces: tightening the metrics that protect patients and teams, and expanding AI capabilities that meaningfully reduce workload.
Patient safety as a real-time discipline
At Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., a new IV pump interoperability rollout is redefining how safety is measured at the bedside.
“I’ll be monitoring our IV pump scanning compliance closely in 2026,” said Aruna Jagdeo, BSN, RN, CNIO. “IV pump interoperability is new technology for our organization, and patient safety is our No. 1 priority. I’ll be monitoring to ensure adoption and ROI related to patient safety outcomes over the year.”
For Marc Benoy, BSN, RN, CNIO at Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health, the safety lens is widening — and the regulatory bar is rising. Recently revised performance goals from The Joint Commission around staffing, now codified in National Patient Safety Goals, bring workforce sufficiency into sharper focus.
“Safe staffing isn’t just numbers — it’s about making sure the right nurses, with the right skills, are caring for the right patients,” he said.
To support this benchmark, Mr. Benoy partners across nursing, quality, finance, human resources and analytics to ensure leaders have real-time visibility into staffing, acuity and nurse-sensitive outcomes — and can act quickly when conditions shift.
He also stresses that safety depends on reducing the unnecessary administrative burden that pulls nurses away from patients. His focus in 2026 includes improving scheduling workflows, strengthening assignment logic, sharpening communication tools and using technology-enabled competency management to ensure the right people are prepared for the right workflows.
“Staffing is now explicitly tied to patient safety, leadership oversight and system reliability,” he said. “Our responsibility is to build systems where staffing, workflows, technology and clinical practice support one another.”
At Charleston, S.C.-based Roper St. Francis Healthcare, CNIO Jared Houck, RN, said his team will be watching performance transparency as a signal of system reliability.
“In 2026, I’ll be watching our Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades closely.” he said. “When the score moves, it reflects shifts across the systems that protect patients, support clinicians, and drive financial performance.”
AI moves from pilot to infrastructure
If 2025 was the year of experimentation, leaders say 2026 is about scale.
Several systems plan to expand ambient documentation:
- Usman Akhtar, MD, CMIO at Arlington, Va.-based VHC Health, is targeting high-volume primary care and specialties, with deeper Epic integration to cut after-hours “pajama time.”
- Aaron Thompson, MD, associate CMIO at New Orleans-based LCMC Health, said early wins with ambient AI scribes have cleared the path for broader deployment.
- Benjamin Slovis, MD, CMIO at Philadelphia-based Temple University Health System, said strong results in ambulatory and ED settings have providers asking to bring the technology inpatient.
But not all expansion is note-centric. Bradley Hoyt, MD, CMIO at Nashville, Tenn.-based Ardent Health, highlighted “ambient nursing” as an innovation focus.
At Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City, Calif., CMIO Jason La Marca, MD, is prioritizing technologies that meaningfully reduce documentation burden.
“As the CMIO, my goal is to support our clinical staff with technology and innovative solutions that help them deliver the best possible patient care with the least amount of burden on them,” he said. “I have been reluctant to implement an AI Scribe in our inpatient settings, but the quality of the output has improved so much in the past few months that I want to pilot it with our physicians and mid-levels.”
Dr. La Marca said the system is also implementing an OR solution that automates intraoperative video capture, analysis and documentation to improve surgical workflows and training.
At Raleigh, N.C.-based WakeMed, Neal Chawla, MD, CMIO, is focused on normalization — making AI an everyday tool while maintaining sharp awareness of patient safety and bias risks.
“A significant goal is to generally make AI more standard and not special, while still keeping a healthy fear of the dangers of AI,” he said.
Virtual workflows rise alongside AI
Scaling workforce relief isn’t limited to automation. Radnor, Pa.-based Main Line Health is embedding virtual support directly into inpatient care.
John Potts, DO, CMIO, plans to expand the system’s virtual nursing program using fixed cameras in patient rooms — enabling faster admissions and discharges while reducing routine burdens on bedside staff.
The vision: quicker touchpoints, safer care, happier teams and patients — and a meaningful dent in avoidable length of stay.
The common thread
Clinical leaders say the year ahead will revolve around a united goal: make care safer to deliver, and sustain the teams delivering it.
Safety metrics and AI adoption aren’t separate priorities anymore. They are mutually dependent levers for a more resilient workforce, and a faster, more reliable patient experience.
