Bethany Children’s Health Center uses AI governance, ambient clinical documentation, MEDITECH EHR optimization, exoskeletons, and virtual reality to support pediatric care for children with complex medical needs. On The CereCore Podcast, Dr. Darin Brannan explains how the organization evaluates technology, reduces provider documentation time, and connects innovation to patient and workforce outcomes.
Dr. Darin Brannan has spent more than 25 years caring for children with complex and chronic medical needs. As Chief of Clinical Innovation at Bethany Children’s Health Center in Bethany, Oklahoma, he leads the pediatric health system’s technology strategy, including AI governance, clinical workflow design, and digital tools for rehabilitation. Because the organization serves a highly specialized patient population, technology decisions must account for workflows and care needs that standard healthcare solutions may not address.
On the episode, Dr. Brannan explains how Bethany Children’s evaluates healthcare technology, why AI governance and workforce education should precede adoption, and how ambient AI has reduced provider documentation time by two hours per day. The conversation also covers the use of exoskeletons and virtual reality in pediatric rehabilitation, the role of MEDITECH EHR optimization in supporting specialized clinical workflows, and the importance of a shared organizational purpose in sustaining patient-centered innovation.
Bethany Children's takes a disciplined approach to technology adoption. Dr. Brannan describes a structured governance process that begins with identifying a clear problem before ever evaluating a solution. If the team cannot make a case that a product actually serves the problem, they do not waste effort pursuing it.
That governance framework extends to AI. The organization completed its AI charter, acceptable use policy, and evaluation process nearly two years before beginning its ambient listening pilot. When the time came to evaluate products, the team already had a clear use case: reducing provider burnout and after-hours documentation.
Education plays an equally critical role. When new technology is introduced, staff need to understand both the objective and how their roles will evolve. If 40% of someone's administrative duties will be handled by an AI agent, the organization provides professional training to elevate that person's work rather than leaving them to wonder about job security.
The decision to implement ambient listening was never about throughput or seeing more patients. It was about supporting providers and reducing what Dr. Brannan calls "pajama time," the after-hours documentation that contributes to burnout.
The results have been meaningful. Providers are spending two fewer hours per day on documentation. Patient satisfaction surveys have surfaced unexpected benefits. Parents are commenting that they feel like they have their pediatrician back because the computer is no longer inserting itself between provider and family.
One parent's feedback stood out. Because the provider was narrating findings aloud for the ambient tool during the exam, the parent realized for the first time what the physician was actually assessing and why. It revealed an assumption providers often make: that families understand what is happening during an exam when they may not.
Bethany Children's patient population includes children who are ventilator dependent, feeding tube dependent, or recovering from brain and spinal cord injuries. Technology in this setting is not about efficiency alone. It is about unlocking potential.
Stationary exoskeletons on treadmills allow paralyzed patients to experience a walking motion, rebuilding muscle memory and bone density even when full recovery is not possible. For patients who do have the opportunity to regain mobility, a mobile exoskeleton with a walker attachment lets physical therapists program gait and speed while the child moves down the hallway, creating the neural pathways the brain needs to replicate movement independently.
Bethany Children’s is also exploring virtual reality as a complement to physical rehabilitation. A patient in a stationary exoskeleton might wear a VR headset, experience walking on a virtual beach, and turn around to see footprints in the sand. Dr. Brannan believes this type of immersive experience could support motivation, confidence, and emotional well-being alongside physical therapy.
What do you need to go out OK Bethany Children’s partnered with CereCore to optimize its MEDITECH EHR environment. Because the organization serves children with complex medical needs, standard EHR content does not always fit its clinical and operational workflows. Dr. Brannan describes the value of working with healthcare IT consultants who understand MEDITECH, learn Bethany Children’s operations, and advocate for workflow changes that support the organization’s care model.
"They became advocates for us. They learned our operations, they learned our workflows, and they were able to make recommendations that we had not even considered."
The optimization work surfaced operational challenges the team had not yet identified and introduced recommendations that improved workflows across departments. As the organization expands with a new outpatient center of excellence, it plans to review workflows on a quarterly basis to stay ahead of changes driven by accreditation bodies, payers, and the EHR vendor's own software updates.
At Bethany Children's, there is a phrase built around the idea that no one gets to say "it's just me." Whether someone works in environmental services, IT, or at the bedside, the organization communicates that patient care cannot happen without the totality of the workforce.
That message is reinforced through multidisciplinary governance councils, an intranet platform that shares patient and employee stories, and a deliberate effort to include non-patient-facing staff in technology evaluation and decision-making.