March 2025 | Mercy’s Generative AI for Patient Transitions
Mercy uses generative AI to aggregate medical record information and create a summary for nurses to smooth the transition of care from department to department as a patient’s needs and location within the hospital setting change. Learn their secrets to success including how they built the solution and how they collaborated with clinical leadership to deliver a solution that was needed and wanted.
Tracy L. Breece is a visionary nurse informaticist with over 25 years of leadership experience, driving the integration of technology and digital transformation in healthcare to enhance nursing practice, patient care, and operational efficiency. She has a proven track record of implementing system-wide innovations that enhance the quality and safety of patient care, streamline nurse workflows, optimize clinical documentation, and elevate the role of technology in nursing.
Tracy led the nursing workflow engineering of the ED to IP generative AI nurse handoff, leading to improved care team communication, reduction the nurse cognitive burden, and enhancement of quality at the time of patient transitions. Her expertise bridges clinical practice and digital strategy, ensuring technology serves as a seamless extension of nursing workflows rather than a disruption.
A respected nurse thought leader, Tracy collaborates with industry healthcare executives to integrate technology with strategic business objectives. Above all, she is a dedicated nurse, committed to preserving the heart of the profession. Her work bridges the science and art of nursing, ensuring that innovation enhances, rather than replaces, the human touch that defines patient care. She is also deeply invested in mentoring the next generation of nurse informaticists, shaping the future of digital healthcare leadership.
Tracy holds a master’s degree in nursing with a focus on healthcare leadership and is an ANCC board-certified informatics nurse and Certified Professional in Health Information Management (HIMSS). She has also completed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence in Health Care program, further strengthening her expertise in AI-driven clinical transformation.
Kerry Bommarito, PhD, MPH is a Healthcare AI & Analytics Executive with deep expertise in AI, statistics, and decision intelligence. As Vice President of Enterprise AI and Decision Intelligence at Mercy Health, she leads the strategic development and implementation of AI-driven solutions to enhance operational efficiency, elevate patient care, and drive data-informed decision-making.
A proven leader in healthcare innovation, Dr. Bommarito pioneered the implementation of the first generative AI product at scale in a clinical workflow (April 2024), integrating AI into real-time decision-making to transform healthcare delivery. She also co-led Mercy’s COVID analytics response and chaired the St. Louis Area COVID Analytics Workgroup, providing critical insights to the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.
Dr. Bommarito has extensive experience leading high-performing data science teams, developing cutting-edge AI and analytic products, and integrating AI into clinical environments to optimize healthcare operations. With a Ph.D. in Public Health Studies (Epidemiology) and an MPH from Saint Louis University, she brings over a decade of expertise in health services and outcomes research, having previously worked at Washington University in St. Louis.
Her work spans machine learning, predictive analytics, and AI-driven decision intelligence, leveraging electronic medical record (EMR), billing, and claims data to develop AI-powered solutions for hospital operations, patient safety, clinical research, and strategic decision-making. Passionate about the future of AI in healthcare, she continues to drive innovative, data-driven approaches that reshape the industry.