Health systems are increasingly turning to AI to tackle one of hospital operations’ most complex challenges: medication management.
Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System formed a new partnership to apply AI across its pharmacy, dispensing and infusion workflows, with the aim of improving inventory visibility, reducing manual work and strengthening medication safety.
For Susan Wright, PharmD, vice president of pharmacy services at Wellstar, the need stemmed from the growing complexity of managing medication operations across a large health system.
“The medication management process is complex. There are many touch points along the way,” Dr. Wright told Becker’s. “Our hospitals dispense tens of thousands of doses each day, and it’s really a challenge having all the right controls in the right places to make sure that we’re getting the medications exactly where they need to be at the right time.”
Previously, many medication management tasks were manual or lacked direct visibility into inventory and workflow patterns, she said. The new AI-enabled platform is designed to aggregate large volumes of operational data and help automate those processes.
The rollout at Wellstar will take place in phases over several years. First, the system will replace existing pharmacy carousels with the technology integrated directly with automated dispensing cabinets on nursing units. Additional deployments, including infusion pump upgrades, will follow on a facility-by-facility basis.
“We want to make sure we have the right resources and at-the-elbow support for each facility when they go live,” Dr. Wright said.
One of the primary goals is improving enterprisewide visibility into medication inventory, especially during shortages.
“We have sometimes inventory at one hospital, but not at another hospital, so these tools will help us give a better enterprise approach to managing that inventory when things go on back order,” Dr. Wright said.
The system also plans to use the technology to better understand medication usage patterns and optimize replenishment timing for automated dispensing cabinets.
“We have an idea as far as timing — when medications in the dispensing cabinets are running low, how they’re being used, at what times by nursing,” she said. “When is it optimal for pharmacy to go in and replenish that stock and put it in the right quantities?”
Beyond operational efficiency, Wellstar sees the technology as a potential response to ongoing pharmacy workforce pressures, particularly pharmacy technician shortages.
“We can really utilize technology to do some of those manual tasks,” Dr. Wright said. “So that way we can use our existing human capital toward more patient-centered activities.”
As implementation progresses, Wellstar plans to closely monitor metrics tied to inventory optimization and medication waste and safety. The system also plans to track labor efficiency for both pharmacy and nursing teams, along with medication error rates, missed doses and broader workflow speed and accuracy metrics.
Like many health systems adopting AI tools, Wellstar has established governance structures around implementation and oversight. One such measure is maintaining a multidisciplinary AI oversight committee that meets weekly to review incoming technologies and monitor performance after deployment, Dr. Wright said.
Frontline staff have also been involved in the process from the beginning, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, medication safety leaders, IT teams and nursing leadership.
Looking ahead, Dr. Wright said the long-term vision extends beyond hospital medication workflows alone.
“What I would like to truly see is oversight from the time that the patient is seen, maybe in their physician’s practice or in the hospital, and then transition out back into the home,” she said. “How are we taking care of the patient in their entirety, not just for that short period of time that they’re with us in the acute care setting?”
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