A new study looked at how hospitals across the United States are using artificial intelligence and robotics. It also examined who has easy access to these tools and who does not.
The research was done by a team at Drexel University. It was published in the journal Scientific Reports on September 14, 2026.
Researchers studied data from 6,166 hospitals across 3,143 counties. The information came from the American Hospital Association, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study focused on 2023 data. Researchers wanted to know if AI tools were tied to better patient outcomes, and how far people had to travel to reach an AI-enabled hospital.
What the Study Found on Patient Outcomes
Hospitals that used AI for staff scheduling saw a 2.24 percentage point rise in sepsis treatment compliance. That is close to a 3.9% improvement compared to hospitals without the tool.
Hospitals using AI to automate routine tasks saw a drop in pneumonia deaths within 30 days. The decrease was 0.87 percentage points, or about 5.4% lower.
Researchers noted that hospitals which later adopted this automation AI already had lower pneumonia mortality before they started using it. This makes the link harder to fully trust.
Robotics use in hospitals was tied to a small improvement in a safety measure that tracks accidental punctures and cuts during procedures.
At the county level, access to routine-task AI was linked to fewer hospital deaths among people under 75. That number dropped close to zero once researchers adjusted for hospital funding and resources.
The Access Gap Between Communities
The study found a wide gap in who can reach AI-enabled hospitals. About 65.8% of the population studied lived within a 30-minute drive of one.
That means roughly 114.6 million people lived farther than 30 minutes from an AI-enabled hospital. Access to surgical robotics was slightly better, reaching 79.5% of the population within the same drive time.
Researchers also measured the distance gap between well-served and poorly-served areas. People in the top 10% for distance had to travel 61.3 miles on average, compared to just 1.9 miles for those in the bottom 10%.
Between 2022 and 2024, the number of AI-enabled hospitals grew by about 56%. Population coverage rose from 66.2% to 75.2% during that time.
Even with that growth, the researchers found that overall inequality in access did not improve. A measure of unevenness, called the Gini coefficient, rose slightly from 0.739 to 0.767.
There was one piece of good news. The gap between the best-served and worst-served areas narrowed by 33% over the two years, meaning the most isolated communities gained some ground.
The study is observational, meaning it can show links but not proof that AI causes better outcomes. Differences in hospital funding, staffing, and resources could explain part of what researchers found.
The most recent figures show that as of 2024, three out of four Americans in the study population lived within reach of an AI-enabled hospital. That still leaves tens of millions without nearby access.
