Private equity hospital AI adoption matches nonprofits, study finds

Private equity hospital AI adoption runs far above that of other for profit hospitals, a study in Health Affairs Scholar has found, TechTarget reported. Hospitals owned by private equity firms took up AI at about the same rate as nonprofit hospitals. TechTarget published its report on 14 October 2026.

What the study measured

The authors drew on the American Hospital Association's 2024 Annual Survey. Their sample covered 4,305 hospitals. They split the hospitals into three groups. The first was owned by private equity. The second was nonprofit. The third was for profit with no private equity owner.

Overall adoption rates

Overall AI adoption reached 31.4% at private equity owned hospitals. Nonprofits stood at 34%. The other for profit hospitals reached only 8.6%.

Counting clinical and operational tools together, the odds of adoption were 33.3% at private equity owned hospitals. They were 32.4% at nonprofits and 8.8% in the rest of the for profit group.

Clinical and operational tools

Operational tools showed little difference between the three groups. Clinical tools tracked the overall pattern. The private equity hospital AI adoption gap therefore shows up mainly in clinical tools.

The authors suggest clinical technology may bring faster returns. They add that acquisition money appears to flow to clinical tools that earn revenue.

Barriers hospitals named

Nonprofit hospitals named cost and resource limits more often. Private equity owned hospitals named staff training more often. In other words, each owner type named a different obstacle.

What the authors recommend

The researchers call the results a preliminary empirical basis. It can be used to test claims that private equity investment drives technology gains in healthcare. Past studies tied private equity buyouts to a rise in hospital acquired conditions.

They urge policymakers to tie payments to technology enabled quality gains. They also want public reporting of technology adoption. Their third proposal is a minimum technology investment as a condition for private equity acquisitions.

Why it matters

The findings show ownership type tracking which tools hospitals adopt, while operational tools show no gap. Medigear.uk follows private equity hospital AI adoption and wider hospital technology news.

Source: TechTarget