WellSpan Uses Patient-Facing AI to Expand Access and Improve Preventive Care

June 24, 2026

Responding to the ongoing needs of our members, HAP hosted a Workforce Summit that brought together clinical, administrative, and workforce leaders from across Pennsylvania to learn and share best practices for developing and engaging health care teams. We’re highlighting some of the innovative ways Pennsylvania hospitals are addressing the workforce crisis.

WellSpan is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to address some of the growing challenges facing health care organizations, including workforce capacity, patient engagement, and access to care.

During a presentation at HAP’s Workforce Summit in April, Elizabeth Younger, MPH, CPHQ, director of quality at WellSpan Health, shared how the health system is using a patient-facing AI health care agent to close preventive care gaps, improve health equity, and reduce administrative burdens on team members.

According to Younger, AI is not intended to replace team members but to help them work more effectively.

"It's about identifying where AI can create space for team members so they can focus on the work where they add the most value," she said.

Here are a few key takeaways:

• Expanding access: AI can help health systems scale preventive care outreach, enabling organizations to engage large patient populations with minimal team member effort.
  • For example, WellSpan’s Fecal Immunochemical Test outreach program used an AI agent to reach more than 30,000 eligible patients about colorectal cancer screening and encourage completion of at-home testing.
• Improving equity: Bilingual capabilities and personalized outreach can help reduce barriers to care and improve patient engagement.
• Broad applications: Beyond preventive screenings, AI has potential applications in appointment scheduling, patient communications, care coordination, and clinical documentation workflows.

HAP’s Workforce Summit brought clinical, administrative, and workforce leaders from across Pennsylvania together to learn and share best practices for developing and engaging health care teams.