How Smart Hospitals Push Forward From Pilot to Practice

Why It Matters

Connected room technology directly improves clinical outcomes and reduces operational costs, accelerating the shift toward data‑driven, patient‑centered care across the healthcare industry.

Key Takeaways

• Global smart‑hospital market $67B, triple by 2030
• UMass hub uses Caregility for real‑time video monitoring
• OhioHealth retrofits older facilities with connected staff badges
• WellSpan AI platform cuts falls 52% and sitter use 92%
• Digital displays streamline coordination, boost patient engagement

Pulse Analysis

The surge in smart‑hospital investments reflects a broader digital transformation in healthcare, driven by the need for seamless information flow and higher quality outcomes. Analysts cite a $67 billion valuation in 2024, with projections showing near‑tripling by 2030 as hospitals prioritize interoperable platforms that link bedside devices to electronic health records. This momentum is fueled by cost pressures, staffing shortages, and patient expectations for personalized, technology‑enabled experiences, prompting both new constructions and retrofits to embed connectivity from the ground up.

Real‑world implementations underscore the operational upside of these ecosystems. UMass Memorial’s 72‑room North Pavilion leverages the Caregility platform to enable remote clinicians to zoom in on IV labels and conduct virtual consults, cutting response times during emergencies. OhioHealth’s design team integrated staff badges that display credentials and clinical data on patient TVs, fostering transparency and reducing workflow friction. Meanwhile, WellSpan’s Artisight solution, integrated with Epic, achieved a 52% drop in fall rates and a 92% reduction in sitter reliance, translating into measurable cost savings and higher satisfaction scores for patients and nurses alike.

Looking ahead, the scalability of smart rooms hinges on standardized data models and AI analytics that can predict deterioration before it occurs. Hospitals that adopt open, vendor‑agnostic architectures will more easily retrofit legacy spaces and expand capabilities across networks. As reimbursement models increasingly reward outcomes, the ROI of smart‑room technology is likely to become a decisive factor, cementing its role as a foundational element of next‑generation health systems.

How Smart Hospitals Push Forward From Pilot to Practice

Feb 16 2026

Erika Gimbel – Chicago‑based freelance writer who specializes in B2B technology innovation and educational technology.

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Whether by building new facilities or updating older rooms, health systems are transforming their physical spaces to improve care coordination.

An Apple iPad device stationed outside of a hospital room glows yellow, indicating that the patient inside is a fall risk. Before the clinician enters, she touches the screen to view other updates and confirm that she doesn’t need to first check in at the nurse’s station.

Inside, a digital whiteboard displays information typically handwritten on a hospital room dry‑erase board, such as dietary restrictions and the names of the current care staff. Because the interactive screen is connected to the electronic health record system, the data is updated in real time and can include physical‑therapy appointments and an anticipated discharge date.

This is an example of a smart hospital room, outfitted with interactive displays, cameras, speakers, microphones and other connected medical devices that are meant to operate in sync with various software platforms, applications and artificial intelligence.

The global market for smart‑hospital technology was about $67 billion in 2024 and is projected to almost triple by 2030. Industry analysts are seeing these technologies proliferate in new healthcare facilities.

“There is not one new hospital going up without this technology being a core part of it,” says Dr. Bill Fera, principal at Deloitte. “It has to be a consideration when they do the build.”

Although most smart rooms are being built in newer facilities, some hospitals are retrofitting older buildings as well. The rooms are not just convenient and efficient — they are proving to have real impacts in metrics such as improved patient outcomes and employee retention.

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UMass Memorial Health’s Improved Connected Response

UMass Memorial Health has made major investments in digital‑health initiatives, including a brand‑new, 20,000‑square‑foot hub to centralize virtual care. The North Pavilion, opened in 2025, 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. “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.”

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, a trained internist and hospitalist for 25 years, explains:

“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.”

Alper offers a possible scenario: “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.”

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OhioHealth Teams Up for Design and Implementation

In Columbus, Ohio, Pickerington Methodist Hospital—the newest facility in the OhioHealth network—went live with 90 smart rooms. A multidisciplinary team designed the layout and technology specifications. Tom Gutman, adviser and senior creative technologist, and Erika Braun, adviser for user experience and product design, led the effort.

Braun described the process: “We had to really understand the biggest problems to solve for our health system—throughput, quality, staffing, access—and for our end users—patients, families, clinical and non‑clinical associates—to learn what was not working in the current hospital setting and imagine what working and receiving care in a smart hospital might look like.”

Key pillars that guided the design included a more personal touch (“Patients didn’t want to be treated like a number”), efficiencies for clinical staff, and improved communication and connections so the care team, patients and families would all be more engaged.

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: in‑room smart TVs, cameras, digital whiteboards, door signage, virtual nursing and an integrated nurse‑call system. A notable feature is connected staff badges that display a caregiver’s name and credentials on the patient’s TV when they enter the room, then transition to show relevant clinical information.

In 2025 the team added 26 more smart rooms in an older OhioHealth hospital. Gutman notes, “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 also looking where the greatest needs are for smart rooms in our system and how to best retrofit them—not just based on the physical space, but on the needs of the hospital, care teams and the patients they serve.”

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WellSpan Health Makes Integration Central to Care

WellSpan Health, serving central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, began exploring smart‑room technology with a pilot that has expanded to 681 hospital beds across seven hospitals, with more expected in 2026.

Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive Patricia Donley led the initiative. “We started by looking at our front‑line team members and trying to find ways to reduce their administrative burden so they could focus more 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 explains.

The pilot began with technology on carts—TV screens, audio and video feeds—connected to sensors on beds and other devices. Virtual nurses could monitor and check in on patients when needed. Results included a 52 % reduction in patient fall rates and a 92 % reduction in the need for in‑room sitters, freeing staff for other tasks, along with higher patient‑satisfaction scores and increased nurse communication rates.

Since the pilot, WellSpan has hard‑wired rooms with Artisight in several hospitals. “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.”