In a remarkable feat that underscores the power of purposeful innovation in healthcare, HealthServ Los Baños Medical Center, an affiliate of the Mount Grace Hospitals Network, earned the Gold Award in the Most Advanced Healthcare Technology category at the 2025 Hospital Management Asia (HMA) Awards.
The recognition honors the hospital’s pioneering initiative, ‘Smart Alerts for Smarter Audits: A Rule-Based Hospital Mortality Review Process Using AI-Predicted Mortality,’ a project that demonstrates how a community hospital can successfully harness artificial intelligence (AI) to transform clinical processes and enhance patient outcomes.
The award-winning project is led by Dr. Anton Elepaño, Clinical Outcomes Consultant, and Dr. Emilio Adriano, Medical Director of HealthServ Los Baños. Together with Lovely Edeza, Grace Engle, and Melfred Sumaya, they developed a system that integrates predictive analytics with automated alerts to support clinicians in monitoring and reviewing inpatient outcomes.
Mortality predictions
By using AI-generated mortality predictions drawn from the hospital’s electronic health records, the process automatically flags specific cases for review, allowing doctors to focus their attention on cases that need immediate analysis and action.
‘Traditionally, mortality audits require extensive manual chart reviews, a time-consuming and sometimes inconsistent process,’ explained Dr. Adriano. ‘With the help of AI, we can now prioritize cases more effectively, ensuring that we are not only reviewing outcomes but learning from them in real time.’
The system’s AI model was trained using more than 30,000 anonymized patient records dating back to 2016. It employs natural language processing (NLP) to interpret clinical notes and a random forest algorithm to identify patterns and variables that may contribute to higher mortality risks. Through this method, HealthServ’s AI-powered review system has dramatically improved efficiency, cutting chart review time by nearly half, while increasing data accuracy and standardizing how clinical outcomes are analyzed.
Crucial realization
According to Dr. Elepaño, the project was born out of a simple but crucial realization that hospitals already possess vast amounts of valuable data, but without the right tools, much of it goes unused.
‘We wanted to design something that’s practical and scalable , a system that works even in resource-limited settings,’ he said. ‘AI doesn’t replace human judgment; it enhances it. Our goal was to empower clinicians with insights drawn from data, so that every review becomes an opportunity for better care.’
Beyond its technical achievements, the initiative also reflects the hospital’s larger vision: to foster a culture of continuous learning, accountability, and innovation.
For Dr. Adriano, the project represents HealthServ’s ongoing journey toward excellence.
‘As a small hospital, we wanted to prove that innovation isn’t confined to big institutions,’ he said. ‘We can lead meaningful change by combining purpose, teamwork, and the right use of technology. Every improvement in process is, ultimately, an investment in patient safety and trust.’
Broader applications
The framework designed by the team also has broader applications beyond mortality audits. The system’s rule-based structure and predictive capability can be expanded to track other clinical indicators such as predicting the cost of admission, analyzing wound care outcomes, or benchmarking performance across hospitals within the Mount Grace network. These possibilities, according to Dr. Elepaño, reflect the project’s adaptability and its potential to serve as a blueprint for other hospitals seeking to make data-driven decisions.
The Hospital Management Asia (HMA) Awards, established in 2002, are among the most respected platforms for recognizing excellence and innovation in healthcare management across the Asia-Pacific region. The annual conference brings together healthcare executives, clinicians, and innovators to showcase transformative projects and share best practices in areas such as patient safety, clinical effectiveness, sustainability, and digital transformation.
Forward-thinking approaches
The awards celebrate hospitals that demonstrate forward-thinking approaches and measurable impact, institutions that go beyond compliance to create systems of genuine improvement. Held this year in Vietnam, the 2025 HMA Awards gathered hospitals and health systems from across Asia to celebrate groundbreaking work that raises the standards of healthcare delivery.
Competing against larger and more established institutions, HealthServ Los Baños’ victory was both humbling and inspiring.
‘It proves that innovation isn’t limited by size or location,’ said Dr. Adriano. ‘Even a community hospital in Los Baños can lead the way in using data science to improve healthcare delivery. What matters most is the commitment to do better for our patients, our people, and the community we serve.’