Patient Safety Predictions for 2026, Part 1
By Jay Kumar
PSQH reached out to experts throughout healthcare to get their predictions for what will happen in patient safety and healthcare quality in 2026. We received so many predictions this time around that we’re breaking it up into two parts. Here’s Part 1 of what they had to say.
Nicole Rogas, President at RevSpring
In 2026, AI will become the ultimate empathy engine across industries, not just in healthcare.
As customers grow more cost-conscious and automation fatigue sets in, the organizations that succeed won’t be those that merely automate but those that sense when a person needs compassion, clarity, or human intervention. In tighter economic conditions, people scrutinize every touchpoint more sharply. The most trusted brands will use intelligent automation to preempt stress, tailor tone and timing based on behavior, and offer seamless escalation to human support when needed. In sectors pressed by budget constraints, this “automated empathy” becomes a differentiator: not just a convenience, but a vital trust-builder. Successful adoption will hinge on balancing efficiency with emotional intelligence, especially in regulated, sensitive domains.
Jennifer Schmitz, Chief Clinical Officer, ENA, CENTEGIX Healthcare Advisory Board Member
Healthcare must embrace a layered, proactive approach to workplace safety
Workplace violence in the healthcare industry has become increasingly visible, even making several news headlines in 2025.
In the coming year, healthcare leaders will be challenged to move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and adopt multi-pronged strategies that integrate policy, culture, environment, and technology. They will be compelled to acknowledge that their duty of care extends not only to patients, but also to staff.
Clear policies, defined procedures, and consistent enforcement build trust and accountability. These, coupled with tools that accelerate emergency response, such as wearable duress buttons, will allow healthcare organizations to track trends, measure effectiveness, and continuously refine their workplace violence prevention strategies. By creating multi-layered, proactive safety programs, healthcare organizations will protect their workforce while fostering safer, more effective patient care.
Andrea Greco, SVP of Healthcare Safety, CENTEGIX
Hospitals will shift from RTLS to trust-first safety solutions
In 2026, I believe we’ll see brick-and-mortar healthcare organizations shift away from surveillance-style staff safety technologies, like RTLS. Driven by the need to halt staffing shortages and boost engagement, the focus will shift to employee-centric solutions that prioritize caregiver empowerment and autonomy over privacy-compromising tracking. Safety must feel like support, not surveillance, for investment effectiveness.
Proactive risk monitoring must become a standard of care
In 2026, I think we will see a bigger shift from reactive responses to proactive risk monitoring as a core element of workplace violence prevention. Instead of relying solely on incremental risk assessments, we’ll see healthcare organizations conduct them more frequently and at broader levels, encompassing patient, staff, and facility-level needs. Following these assessments, leaders will be able to better facilitate trainings that enable staff to recognize early danger and encourage the submission of incident reports without fear or retaliation. When these elements come together, healthcare facilities are not only able to promote safety, they are also supporting their workforce that is providing care.
Safety strategies will be key to workforce stability and performance
2026 will be defined by an intense, strategic focus on the healthcare workforce. This means safety initiatives will no longer operate in a silo; they must be explicitly aligned with core business goals and metrics like retention and profitability. Having reached a critical tipping point in workforce instability, leaders are now aggressively demanding solutions that demonstrably reduce burnout and strengthen retention. Data confirms that an employee’s perception of ‘feeling safe’ is a key component of overall well-being. Consequently, we anticipate a significant increase in safety technology investments, viewing them as essential tools for improving engagement, stabilizing the workforce, and securing financial performance.
David Edwards, Chief Technology Officer, Relatient
Purpose-built AI set to lead healthcare innovation in 2026
Large digital health companies have spent years pursuing one-size-fits-all solutions, often with mixed results. While these systems aim to solve a broad set of problems, breadth does not always translate into depth or effectiveness. As AI matures, the landscape is shifting. Specialty vendors are increasingly able to pair deep domain expertise with more precise applications of AI. Their solutions are evolving quickly because they are built around specific clinical and operational realities rather than generalized assumptions. In 2026, healthcare leaders focused on measurable outcomes and clear ROI will look beyond broad platforms and invest more deliberately in purpose-built tools. Thoughtful adoption of these targeted, AI-enhanced solutions will offer a more practical and effective path to solving complex challenges.”
Andrew Yamarick, General Manager of Medical Technology Management, Agiliti
Preparing for the 2026 flu season: Building resilience through proactive equipment readiness
Each flu season tests the resilience of hospitals and service teams across the country, bringing new lessons in readiness and preparation along with it—which cannot wait until patient volumes start to climb. Before patient volumes start to climb, hospitals need to actively plan for the imminent surge by strengthening equipment availability, addressing maintenance backlogs and preparing for increased demand; this will make all the difference when the pressure hits.
Delays in preventive maintenance or overlooked equipment issues can ripple through a system during peak demand. Addressing those gaps early improves reliability and reduces the risk of downtime when every minute counts. Coordination across clinical, supply chain and engineering operations is equally critical. Advanced coordination and the review of past flu season data will identify bottlenecks and ensure a more effective response.
Don’t wait until a census spike: When lead times are unpredictable, access to additional equipment pools or contingency plans for repairs and replacement parts are essential for care systems to remain flexible. Predictive planning, clear communication and proactive coordination help ensure that the medical technology supporting patient care is ready, reliable and resilient before the first wave of flu patients even arrives.
Sean Cassidy, Chief Executive Officer at Lucem Health
3 Predictions for 2026:
- CFO‑led AI adoption fixes specialty margins. Health systems will use AI to enrich the mix of patients entering cardiology, hepatology, GI, and other high‑value lines, aligning staff to top‑of‑license work and turning losing visits into complete care journeys.
- Referral leakage gets inverted. Instead of waiting for a PCP referral, systems will proactively identify at‑risk patients from existing data, trigger a low‑cost confirmatory test, and route them to in‑network specialists—the “digital front door before the door.”
- Shared-Risk AI Models Replace Traditional Sales. The era of transactional software sales gives way to shared‑risk partnerships. Vendors will increasingly tie their revenue to measurable outcomes rather than license fees, leading to hospitals adopting new technology without budget constraints. Many will offer no-cost deployments or cost‑neutral pilots, built to showcase downstream ROI and prove value.
Deepak Singh, Chief Innovation Officer at Adeptia
Insurers will replace traditional iPaaS tools with intelligent data automation
The era of simple data movement is ending. Across health, life, and other insurance lines, insurers will recognize that integration without intelligence can’t keep up with the complexity of eligibility rules, plan variations, and regulatory demands. Rather than relying on traditional iPaaS tools that simply shuttle files around, insurers will shift toward platforms that can understand, validate, and act on data in real time—reducing rework, compliance risk, and IT dependency while strengthening the entire enrollment and policy administration lifecycle.
Enrollment accuracy will become an AI benchmark for group health providers
As AI becomes embedded across healthcare operations, enrollment data quality will emerge as a defining benchmark for automation success. Group health providers will begin treating “Enrollment Data Accuracy” as a formal KPI, on par with reconciliation accuracy in finance or defect rates in manufacturing. Organizations that continue relying on legacy file transfers and script-based oversight will see costs spike as data complexity grows, while those who adopt intelligent automation will set the standard for operational resilience, compliance, and AI-ready infrastructure.
Sanjeev Dhawan, VP of Healthcare at R Systems
Patient experience will be defined by hyper-personalization and intelligent interfaces
In 2026, the next phase of innovation will focus on hyper-personalization, moving from tailored suggestions to whole-body digital twins with dynamic models reflecting an individual’s physiology, lifestyle, and clinical history. Virtual assistants and conversational interfaces will guide patients through care journeys with real-time, AI-driven insights. Integrated telehealth, IoMT devices, and cloud-based analytics will work together to create cohesive, continuous, and highly personalized care environments. Digital product strategies will also emphasize user-centric design, modular architectures, and AI-led optimization, blending mobile, web, IoMT, and telehealth into one seamless experience.
Robbins Schrader, Co-Founder & CEO at SafeRide Health
In 2026, non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) will evolve from a support function to a crucial part of the infrastructure that enables patient safety, especially for Medicare and Medicaid special needs populations, where members are either very ill or lack access to care. About one in four people still face transportation barriers, and those without a vehicle are 2.5 times more likely to have preventable emergency room visits. These issues are bad for members, payers, and the healthcare system as a whole. For health plans’ NEMT partners, ensuring better access means delivering millions of rides to medical appointments each year—many of them to life-sustaining care such as chemotherapy, dialysis, and behavioral health services—while verifying member eligibility, managing networks, and detecting real-time risk signals. In 2026, leading payers and providers will see NEMT platforms as an extension of the care team, collaborating in real time across providers, complex care, and transportation teams to close care gaps for the most complex and vulnerable patients.
Dr. Tim Church, Chief Medical Officer at Wondr Health
The end of GLP-1 discontinuation and why staying on will become the standard
The idea of discontinuing the use of GLP-1s as a goal for patients is not going to age well. These are life-saving medications, and more evidence keeps showing benefits far beyond weight loss. Bragging about taking patients off them doesn’t make sense clinically. The theme of discontinuation should start fading in 2026 as more data accumulates. Recent studies shows that even without weight loss, GLP-1s reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. They benefit blood vessels, kidneys, the liver and heart. There are weight-loss benefits and there are broader benefits, and the latter are significant. Early discontinuation of GLP-1s is associated with increased risks of all cardiovascular events, especially coronary artery disease (CAD). After discontinuation, CAD events increased by nearly 30%. It’s hard to argue that taking patients off these medications is ever going to be beneficial.
Compounding will shift to a niche role
The larger compounders for GLP-1s probably won’t be able to continue much longer, especially as manufacturer pricing gets closer to compounding pricing. FDA enforcement will increase. Compounding won’t disappear completely, but it will shift from mainstream use to niche use. Compounders will keep trying to stay in the market by adding things like vitamin C or using other small modifications, but widespread reliance on compounders will diminish as manufacturers make direct access easier. There will be more pressure on both compounders and the prescribers using them. The trend will be toward reduced compounding use as direct options expand.
Miriam Paramore, CEO and Founder of RXUtility
The intersection of affordability and safety
The digital distribution of medication affordability tools like copay coupons will accelerate as consumers face high insurance premiums and drug prices continue to rise.
With the ACA health insurance subsidies expiring at the end of 2025, there is more focus on affordability than ever. Congress has yet to come up with a solution that addresses the premium increases that will be faced by 30 million Americans who buy insurance on the exchange. The proposals under consideration put even more responsibility on the consumer to manage their dollars through a health savings accounts or mechanisms. At the same time, employers and insurers are facing an 11% increase in drug prices next year. Both trends mean that consumers are going to pay more for healthcare across the board.
Copay coupons are a way to offset the consumer’s out-of-pocket costs to the tune of $30 billion in savings. These affordability tools that’s never been widely publicized. These coupons are going to start to flow through the healthcare ecosystem in 2026 as we see more and more utilization of affordability tools in general.
The dynamic drug pricing and direct-to-consumer shift
The pharma direct-to-consumer channel that started with GLP-1s will expand to new drug categories and momentum will accelerate.
2025 was a revolutionary year for how consumer purchase prescription medications. For the first time, pharma manufacturers began selling directly to consumers, without any middlemen. In this pharma-to-table model, even the pharmacy counter is obsolete in this model, and meds are shipped directly to the consumer’s door.
What started with GLP-1s, will expand to new drug categories and the momentum will accelerate because the model is proving quite popular.
Because prices are now publicly posted, prices are falling at a pace that is difficult to keep up with. As the D2C market continues to evolve rapidly in 2026, consumers will need drug price transparency tools to find the best price.