A Conversation with the CCO at TeleTracking
This interview originally appeared on Second Opinion (free registration required)
We’ve consistently heard that health systems are looking for applications that are truly “mission-critical” or they’re not buying. What would you define as mission-critical in this climate?
MS: “Mission-critical” has a very specific meaning for health systems: ensuring they have the capacity to treat patients in need. That can be physical capacity or human capacity. They need solutions that directly impact daily operations and improve the outcomes for their patients.
Operational visibility – particularly solutions that turn real-time data into coordinated action – is a core requirement. Without these tools, hospital leaders are making multi-million dollar decisions in the dark. More importantly, patient access suffers as they are not able to see, in real time, where the capacity exists to treat the next patient. That’s why platforms that enable centralized, coordinated decision making around bed placement, discharge readiness, and load balancing are no longer “nice to have” – they’re foundational. These are the systems that keep the ED from backing up, that accelerate time to treatment, and that prevent missed revenue opportunities.
Further, support staff, such as transport and EVS, are another area where the distinction between “important” and “mission-critical” is becoming clearer. Today, we know that delays in transport or room turnover can cascade through the entire care experience, creating bottlenecks that affect everything from ED boarding to OR scheduling. We can now use AI to orchestrate those tasks in real time – automatically assigning the right person to the right task based on urgency, location, and availability, unlocking efficiency without adding headcount. That’s not just operational improvement. That’s capacity expansion, without new buildings or beds.
Ultimately, health systems that succeed will be those that treat operations not as back-office support, but as a strategic driver of quality, safety, and growth. And they’re looking to partner with companies that understand that difference.
In a post COVID world, patient behavior has changed, particularly given that so many elective procedures got cancelled or delayed. What are your views on how health systems should be communicating with their patients at a time when there’s still some residual distrust of the healthcare system?
MS: COVID fundamentally changed how patients interact with the healthcare system. Deferred elective procedures, overcrowded hospitals, and limited communication all contributed to a decline in patient confidence – and that trust hasn’t been fully rebuilt. So now, more than ever, the way health systems operate behind the scenes matters just as much as the care they provide at the bedside.
One of the most powerful ways to restore trust is by delivering on the promise of reliability. When patients see seamless coordination – reduced boarding in the ER, discharges that aren’t delayed for hours, appointments that start on time – they internalize that the system is working for them, not against them. Operational performance is a proxy for compassion. Patients don’t always know what’s happening clinically, but they know when they’re waiting, confused, or passed between departments.
Health systems should also emphasize how technology is being used to support – not replace – human care. Patients are rightfully wary of being treated like data points in a system. That’s why it’s critical to position AI and automation as tools that allow clinicians to spend more time at the bedside, not to replace them. When nurses aren’t chasing beds or searching for equipment, when care teams aren’t manually coordinating discharges, that time flows directly back to patient interaction.
And perhaps most importantly, communication should be transparent. If a hospital is leveraging new technology, patients should know that it’s making care safer, more coordinated, and more personal. The message is simple but powerful: we’re not just adding tools for the sake of adding tools.
AI is obviously the biggest deal right now in our industry that many people perceive as having the potential to upend operations. What do you see as the most realistic thing AI will do in the very near-term, say the next 3-5 years?
MS: Over the next few years, the most realistic – and most impactful – AI advancements will focus on operational decision making and workflow orchestration. These aren’t speculative “moonshots.” They’re practical, scalable uses of AI that are already starting to take hold in leading health systems.
We’ll see AI help command centers and hospital leaders move from reactive problem solving to proactive planning. For example, predictive modeling will allow hospitals to anticipate patient surges, forecast bed demand, and identify staffing gaps before they cause bottlenecks. This level of coordination is critical to not only maintaining capacity but also helping health systems grow.
AI will also radically improve how hospitals manage support services. Instead of tasking transport or EVS teams through manual dispatching, AI will dynamically route tasks based on urgency, location, and workflow dependencies. This is how we eliminate wasted motion and optimize every minute of our limited workforce.
Discharge planning is another near-term use case with high potential. Today, it’s a complex, often fragmented process. But AI can analyze dozens of variables in real –time – from test results to predicted length of stay to downstream availability – and help care teams focus on the next best patient to discharge. This not only frees up capacity, it improves continuity of care.
The common thread across all of these applications is actionability. We don’t need more alerts or reports. We need AI that turns data into execution – automatically, intelligently, and at scale. That’s not five years away. That’s beginning now.
How about the long term? I’ve heard it said that we are overestimating AI in the immediate term, but underestimating it in the long term. Can you paint a picture of the future of what a health system will look like a decade from now?
MS: The long-term vision is bold, but within reach: a health system where AI doesn’t just inform decisions – it autonomously orchestrates operations across departments, facilities, and even entire regions.
Imagine agentic AI – intelligent digital assistants that operate like invisible members of the care team. These agents wouldn’t just recommend a course of action, they’d carry it out. They’d schedule transport, locate equipment, update records, route a bed assignment – all based on evolving real-time variables like census, acuity, and staffing. A nurse could ask for a room to be prepped and it would just happen. A discharge planner could see all barriers resolved without picking up a phone.
In this world, hospital operations are continuously self-optimizing. The system knows who’s coming in, who’s ready to leave, and how to match supply and demand across units, facilities, or even the entire health system – no more bottlenecks based on missed communication or delayed decisions.
Clinicians are freed from cognitive overload. They can focus on care, while being supported by AI that works in the background like a silent partner triaging alerts, escalating issues, even assisting with documentation. And this doesn’t replace human judgment – it elevates it.
A decade from now, the most resilient health systems will be those that embraced this shift early. They won’t just be using AI – they’ll be built around it, with agility, efficiency, and capacity baked into their operating DNA. It won’t just feel like hospitals are better run; they’ll feel more human – because clinicians will finally be able to focus on the people, not the process.