What You Should Know:
– ECU Health, a rural health system serving 29 counties in eastern North Carolina, has partnered with Artisight to introduce Smart Hospital technology across its facilities, starting with five hospitals and expanding to more in the coming year.
– This new platform will make telehealth services more efficient by expanding specialized care from ECU Health Medical Center to patients in ECU Health hospitals across eastern North Carolina and improve the experience for both patients and care teams.
Expanding Rural Access Through ECU Health’s Smart Hospital Transformation
ECU Health, a 1,708-bed academic health system serving 1.4 million residents across 29 counties in eastern North Carolina, is accelerating its region-wide digital care strategy through the rollout of Artisight’s Smart Hospital Platform. As a mission-driven, not-for-profit system anchored by ECU Health Medical Center and Maynard Children’s Hospital—both primary teaching sites for the Brody School of Medicine—the organization continues to center patient care, education and research in its drive to strengthen rural health outcomes. The initiative begins at ECU Health Bertie, Chowan, Roanoke-Chowan, Duplin and North Hospitals, with all sites ultimately integrating the platform, though service offerings will vary by location. These services will include tele-neurology, virtual ICU care and remote observation—tools that directly address the long-standing access gap across the system’s vast rural footprint.
Artisight’s platform blends artificial intelligence, sensors, audio–video systems and EHR integration to give clinical teams a real-time view of hospital activity and streamline coordination. AI-enabled monitoring supports patient safety—for example, by detecting bed-exit attempts among high-risk patients and sending immediate alerts to care teams—helping prevent injuries and enabling faster interventions. The technology also enables virtual nursing support, remote monitoring and high-acuity teleconsultations. For patients in remote communities, this means immediate access to ECU Health Medical Center specialists through two-way video and audio without needing a transfer, easing the travel burden that often delays diagnosis and treatment.
According to Brian Floyd, Chief Operating Officer, this effort aligns with ECU Health’s commitment to becoming a national model for rural health by removing structural barriers to specialty care. By unifying disparate technologies into a single operational platform, the system is creating a more efficient, equitable and connected care environment. Early results from other U.S. hospitals using Artisight show improvements in discharge timeliness, reduced documentation demands and workflow efficiencies that give nurses more time at the bedside. ECU Health’s adoption of this technology underscores its broader aim: bringing advanced, high-quality care close to home for rural patients while strengthening the resilience and reach of its clinical workforce
