For every hour a clinician spends with a patient, nearly as much time is lost to
administrative work: coordinating care teams, resolving equipment problems, tracking
requests across siloed systems, and much more.
The root cause isn’t that healthcare is inherently complex, but that most organizations
run on a patchwork of disconnected tools accumulated over years of purchasing one-off
solutions. Phone calls, hallway conversations, emails, and spreadsheets still govern
critical processes.
The result: unclear ownership, communication breakdowns at shift changes,
unnecessary friction, and clinicians spending enormous amounts of time toggling
between disconnected systems. Adding AI on top of this fragmented foundation doesn’t
solve the problem -- it only exposes it. And LLMs alone can’t fix this issue because they
don’t enforce governance, connect systems of record, or complete enterprise workflows
on their own. Healthcare needs a unified platform that addresses the structural
challenge.
At ViVE 2026, ServiceNow is launching Healthcare Operations to address this head-on.
Healthcare Operations embeds a shared operational system of record directly into
the electronic medical record (EMR), transforming how care teams manage daily work
and how hospitals coordinate operational support. It also establishes the foundation
needed to adopt AI agents that can further accelerate and automate these workflows.
Bridging the gap between how care is delivered and how operations are
coordinated
Healthcare Operations connects the systems care teams already use (biomed, facilities,
EVS, IT) to the EMR on a single AI-native platform that can replace manual coordination
and disconnected tools. Because Healthcare Operations is embedded within the EMR,
care teams can raise operational requests as part of their normal workflow, without
breaking focus.
Healthcare Operations supports care teams directly by:
- Intelligently routing and tracking requests across departments, so clinicians
never have to chase updates or switch systems.
- Expediting task creation via automated assignment with AI agents, centralized
collaboration, and audit-ready records captured as work happens.
- Providing unified visibility so support teams can accelerate resolution and
minimize operational slowdowns.
- Enabling proactive oversight by managing operational rounds and capturing
critical information that helps leaders identify patterns and trigger actions across
the hospital.
Coming next: a suite of AI agents and voice-enabled capabilities that further accelerate
case management, operational rounding, and real-time care coordination.
Children’s Health, a pediatric healthcare system based in Dallas, Texas, is already using Healthcare Operations to improve how operational issues are handled across the organization.
“For most of my career, we've built tools that meet regulatory needs but add to clinicians’ workload,” said Jonathan Patrick, RN, VP Digital Intelligence, Children’s Health. “We plan to use AI and automation to give them time back, so they can focus more on patients, and less on screens. This solution will meet care teams where they already work, so operational issues can be reported and resolved without pulling clinicians away from patient care. By digitizing task coordination and eliminating manual handoffs, we expect to give meaningful time back to our staff while improving reliability across support services.”
What This Looks Like in Practice
A nurse on a busy hospital floor finds broken equipment and, instead of making phone
calls or submitting a ticket in a separate system, flags it directly in the EMR.
The request is automatically triaged and routed by AI agents to the appropriate team
with the context needed to act quickly. Support teams work from a shared system with
clear ownership and real-time status updates so they aren’t left wondering who owns an
issue or when it’ll be resolved.
A charge nurse can flag issues and trigger follow-ups in real time to make shift change
handoffs as fast, simple, and accurate as possible. Those actions are automatically
tracked, routed, and documented, creating accountability without additional paperwork.
The Future of Connected Healthcare Operations
Care teams need systems built for how work actually happens, not just how it gets
reported. Healthcare Operations has been shaped by years of customer input and real world workflows to meet that need.
“As a physician, I've seen firsthand how much time care teams lose to operational
coordination that has nothing to do with patient care,” said Tamara Elias, MD, VP of
Industry GTM, Healthcare and Life Sciences, ServiceNow. “Healthcare Operations
changes that by bringing facilities, biomed, EVS, and IT into a single system of record
embedded in the EMR. When support services move at the speed clinicians need, you
get better outcomes for patients and better working conditions for staff.”
Visit ServiceNow at ViVE 2026, Booth 2030, or visit the link here to learn more about
how Healthcare Operations is helping care teams focus on patients, not administration.
Healthcare Operations will be on full display at Knowledge 2026, with a dedicated
product roadmap session showcasing the latest innovations and what's ahead for the
platform. For more information on Healthcare and Life Sciences sessions and to
register, visit this link.
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