Saad Ehtisham says the nonprofit health system is looking beyond typical ROI benchmarks for determining worthwhile investments in AI and digital tools for operational growth.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Atlantic Health views innovation as an organizational and cultural transformation effort rather than simply a technology initiative.
The system’s AI investments are focused on reducing friction across care delivery, including clinician documentation burden and patient scheduling delays.
CEO Saad Ehtisham sees workforce resilience and consumer access as long-term strategic returns, alongside traditional financial performance metrics.
For many health systems, innovation has become shorthand for digital expansion and AI deployment designed to create a return on investment. At Atlantic Health, president and CEO Saad Ehtisham frames that approach in another way.
“We’re looking at innovation much differently than most systems are and not as a tool, but as a cultural shift,” Ehtisham told HealthLeaders.
That philosophy is driving the New Jersey-based health system’s use of technology to improve workflows for clinicians while simplifying access for patients.
Investment, according to Ehtisham, is flowing into ambient listening tools, workflow automation, digital scheduling capabilities, and AI applications aimed at reducing friction across care delivery.
A Happier Workforce is a Better Workforce
One of Atlantic Health’s biggest strategic priorities involves workforce sustainability.
The system has emphasized upskilling employees and encouraging leaders to think beyond traditional operational silos, Ehtisham highlighted. The organization wants managers and staff members to develop enterprise-level understanding that allows them to grow internally rather than looking for opportunities outside the system.
“What we want to do is make sure our team members don’t stay in the vertical expertise that they’re framed in, but they have the ability to cross-train into a different vertical and be able to grow in their acumen,” Ehtisham said.
Technology investments have become integral to that workforce strategy.
Atlantic Health recently piloted ambient listening tools that document physician-patient conversations during appointments. While many organizations evaluate those platforms through productivity or revenue gains, Ehtisham is more interested in the impact on clinician experience and long-term sustainability.
“How does that make our clinicians’ and physicians’ lives a lot easier and their flow throughout the day?” Ehtisham said. “Does that reduce their pajama time where they can spend more time with their families instead of having to be in their computers?”
Atlantic Health is also exploring agentic AI capabilities that can respond to certain administrative patient questions through Epic’s MyChart platform. The goal is to reduce after-hours inbox management that contributes to physician burnout.
“It is increasing the resilience of our physicians and that will in turn increase their ability to want to practice longer and want to be with the system,” Ehtisham said. “So that’s our ROI. And I don’t think you can put a dollar value on that. You probably could, you get a mathematician, you can quantify that through some algorithm. I would rather not.”
That same mindset has influenced nursing operations.
Atlantic Health has deployed robots capable of retrieving supplies and handling tasks that frequently pull nurses away from bedside care, Ehtisham noted.
“Twenty-five percent of the time our nursing or any nurse in any health system is spending is non-patient facing,” he said.
By supplementing those activities through automation, the system can allow its team members to focus on taking care of the patient and performing at the top of their license.
As Ehtisham puts it, staff are more likely to produce 150% output if they’re working at 90% of their capability from a resource intensity standpoint, and happier in what they do.
Pictured: Saad Ehtisham, president and CEO, Atlantic Health.
Opening the Digital Front Door Wider
Atlantic Health’s innovation strategy extends into consumer access.
One of the earliest operational changes implemented under Ehtisham involved measuring the next available appointment within 30 days across clinics and reducing delays that prevented patients from getting timely care.
“That was one operational lever we pulled early on,” he said.
According to Ehtisham, improving appointment access generated gains in consumer experience while contributing to stronger financial performance.
“We’re beginning to see it from consumer experience,” he said. “They’re much happier being able to get in when they want to be seen.”
The system is now experimenting with on-demand self-scheduling capabilities designed to better connect patients with its ambulatory infrastructure.
Atlantic Health continues to expand outpatient locations anchored around primary care as well. Many of those sites include rotating specialty services, imaging, laboratory capabilities, and physical therapy offerings intended to create centralized outpatient destinations.
The organization’s digital ambitions also include patient-facing AI applications.
Ehtisham said Atlantic Health is looking at developing its own version of Claude or ChatGPT, capable of guiding consumers toward the appropriate level of care based on conversations occurring through the platform. He envisions systems eventually using those interactions to direct patients toward physician appointments or virtual visits while simultaneously transferring relevant information into the clinical workflow before the encounter begins.
“We know consumers are going on those platforms and typing in, ‘I have this, what should I be?’” Ehtisham said. “That’s a platform that’s being engineered by non-healthcare providers systems. We’d rather get into that technology.”
Keeping Financial Discipline in Focus
Even as Atlantic Health expands technology investments, Ehtisham acknowledged the tension many health systems face when balancing the pursuit of innovation with financial realities.
“Healthcare is the only place where you bring in technology, the cost goes up versus going down,” he said. “We’re trying to invert that thinking.”
That influences how Atlantic Health approaches vendor relationships and operational deployment. Ehtisham said the system prefers working more deeply with select partners capable of improving workflows end-to-end, rather than as a one-off.
He pointed to operational throughput as one example. The organization is evaluating how technology can reduce bottlenecks beginning in the emergency department and continuing through inpatient discharge processes. Smoother patient flow can improve experience while generating financial yield through shorter lengths of stay, Ehtisham stressed.
“It starts creating this pipeline of revenue streams and future predicted models that’s going to be coming through market share that you’re going to be gaining over time,” he said. “It doesn’t happen overnight. But you have to commit to what you’re trying to do.”
Innovation can’t happen without resourcing though, which is why Atlantic Health has dedicated annual capital dollars specifically toward technology investments tied to operational improvements.
“It’s more of a derivative,” Ehtisham said. “You’ve got to generate so much operating margin in order to invest in that,” creating a direct link between financial discipline and innovation capacity.
HENRY KOTULA 