In 2026, artificial intelligence has moved to the forefront of home health and hospice technology. Home health and hospice agencies across the country are integrating AI into their operations, with 49% of survey respondents prioritizing the use of operations dashboards. Although home care and hospice providers are slow at jumping on the AI train, those using it find it helpful in making operations more efficient. Here is how AI in home health is shaping up in 2026.
Popular AI healthcare applications are transforming the way home health and hospice providers operate. Workflow efficiency tools speed up intake, make charting easier, and enable you to spend more time with patients.
AI-powered referral automation tools, including WorldView’s Referral AI, capture, route, and validate referrals automatically. Manual intake involves a lot of paper in faxes, scanned PDFs, and email. Your team might spend hours a week tracking referral documents from different systems and manually entering the data into a central location.
This process is time-consuming and often delays patient care. Automated referral systems capture the data and use it to populate electronic health records. AI-powered systems go beyond typical home health automation tools, which are programmed using predefined rules.
AI learns and reasons to make complex decisions. For example, an AI-powered referral management platform can scan referral documents, flag missing information, and send them back to the referring physician.
Documentation presents a common challenge across the industry. Clinicians currently spend a lot of time taking visit notes and completing other documents following patient visits. This process can take anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours.
You have access to multiple AI-powered charting platforms that listen to your patient visits and take notes automatically. Some of these systems will also flag critical notes and set alerts to follow up.
If you’re like other home health and hospice agencies in the U.S., you’re likely short-staffed. Even if you’re not, you still have a limited number of clinicians, nurses, and caregivers. AI applications use algorithms to analyze caregiver specialties and preferences and match your team to their patients.
These algorithms also consider travel times and a caregiver’s current workload before assigning them to a patient. Smart scheduling gives your caregivers more quality time with each patient, which benefits both parties.
AI tools are evolving. Early AI healthcare applications could only process a single type of data, such as text or images. New tools are multi-modal, meaning you can analyze historical data from multiple sources to get a full picture of your operations.
Predictive analytics in hospice helps you improve patient interactions at each stage. For example, you might use predictive analytics to improve your Hospice Visits in the Last Days of Life (HVLDL) metrics. AI analyzes past data to identify high-risk patients and helps you prioritize timely care as a patient approaches their last days.
Over time, your team learns to identify patients who might need services more often during their last few weeks.
As AI analyzes a patient’s full medical history, charts, scans, and visit notes, it makes recommendations for personalized treatment. Your clinicians use the data to fine-tune each treatment plan and change it based on patient needs.
AI isn’t perfect. It comes with challenges and risks, such as
You can manage your risk by making sure you’re always protecting patient data and working with trusted, knowledgeable vendors. Make sure your human clinicians and administrative team members are validating AI diagnoses and treatment recommendations.
If an AI system is consistently flagging certain patients as ineligible, it could signal a coding bias. When you’re looking for AI software, ask vendors about how they design and train their algorithms. Get details on their data sources and ask for real-world case studies.
Skip the hassle by partnering with vendors who are already committed to ethical AI.
AI’s benefits outweigh the risks, particularly if you’re teaming with a trustworthy vendor. AI can ease your clinicians’ administrative burden and help prevent burnout. WorldView has experience developing HIPAA-compliant home health technology based on your needs and workflows.
Use Referral AI to speed up intake and admissions to start treating patients faster. This tool cuts back on manual data entry mistakes that complicate the process. It also frees your administrative team to work on complex issues.
Take advantage of our partnership with Vivid Health to make documentation easier and less time-consuming. This tool also automates patient follow-up and interprets data to generate personalized care plans.
Contact us today to learn about our home health and hospice solutions and make your team more efficient in 2026.