What to expect from the ASHRM 2026 Annual Conference

Taking place October 4–6, 2026, in Phoenix, Arizona, the ASHRM Annual Conference is expected to give healthcare risk, patient safety, quality, compliance and operational leaders a clearer view of the conversations shaping the year ahead. Rather than making the case for attending, this article focuses on how to prepare for the conversations once you are there: what to listen for, what to ask and what to compare across sessions. Drawing on confirmed ASHRM event information, the early agenda and themes from last year’s patient safety discussions, it outlines the topics likely to influence the conference: policy, case law, enterprise risk, staff and patient safety and the responsible use of emerging technology.  

Event details

What will be different this year?

ASHRM 2026 appears set to move the conversation from broad awareness of risk toward the practical question of readiness. Last year’s patient safety themes focused on what can remain unseen, unheard or unreported. This year, the agenda suggests attendees may be asked to think more deliberately about what happens once those signals are surfaced: how teams interpret them, who needs to act on them and how organizations make decisions before risk escalates. Confirmed areas such as policy, case law, patient safety and enterprise risk point to a program grounded in practical decision-making, while featured topics including AI agents, nurse liability and response after violent incidents or active assailant events suggest a sharper focus on accountability, workforce realities and high-stakes operational response. The value of this year’s event may be in the questions it helps teams prepare before they arrive: where are our blind spots, what are we already hearing from patients and staff, and where do our current processes make action harder than it needs to be? 

“One question I’ll be listening for at ASHRM is how organizations respond when early concerns, near misses or harm events reveal something their systems need to learn. Different perspectives matter because patients, families, caregivers, risk leaders and clinical teams often see different parts of the same story. The goal is a response that builds trust and reduces future harm.” 

Tim McDonald, MD, JD 
Chief Patient Safety & Risk Officer, RLDatix 

Key themes to expect

Patient safety, transparency and organizational learning

Rather than revisiting whether transparency matters, ASHRM 2026 may push the conversation toward how organizations operationalize it. Last year’s takeaway was clear: patient voice, staff concerns and unreported signals can reveal risks that formal processes miss. The next step is understanding how those signals become trusted inputs for learning and change.  Attendees should listen for examples of organizations making it easier for teams to raise concerns and turn them into visible safety improvements. Practical progress may look less like more reporting volume and more like clearer ownership of what happens next. 

Artificial intelligence and responsible adoption

AI is likely to be one of the clearest differences between previous years’ conversations. The focus here is not simply that emerging technology will be discussed, but what attendees may want to listen for when it is. With agenda content pointing to AI agents in standard care, risk and safety leaders may be looking for signs of maturity. This could include stronger governance models, clearer accountability, better data quality and practical use cases that reduce burden without weakening oversight. The most useful discussions may not celebrate technology for its own sake. They will likely ask where AI can help teams see risk earlier and what guardrails are needed before adoption scales. 

Workforce pressure, staff safety and operational resilience

Workforce pressure is expected to appear through a more specific lens at ASHRM 2026. Specifically, how organizations protect and support  teams before and after high-impact events. A featured session on leading through the aftermath of a violent incident or active assailant event points to the operational side of risk management, where planning, communication, leadership and recovery all matter. Attendees may want to watch for examples that connect staff safety with patient safety rather than treating them as separate priorities. Practical conversations could include escalation pathways, post-incident support, crisis communication and the role of leadership in helping teams move from immediate response to organizational learning. 

Governance, case law and regulatory readiness

 Policy, case law and enterprise risk are confirmed areas of focus at the conference this year, but the expectation is that attendees will be listening for how legal and regulatory developments translate into daily decisions. What changes documentation practices? What affects disclosure or incident response? Where do compliance, clinical operations and executive leadership need a shared view of risk? Sessions such as the case law update may help teams pressure-test whether their current processes are clear enough for today’s environment. The practical takeaway is not simply awareness of change, but a stronger sense of where governance needs to become more connected and consistent. 

“The next step for patient safety is helping teams move from awareness to action. That means creating the conditions for risk, safety, quality and operational leaders to work from a shared understanding, make clearer decisions and support the people closest to care. At ASHRM 2026, the most valuable conversations will be the ones that make that work feel practical and sustainable.” 

Kimberli Corcoran, MSN, RN, NE-BC 
Executive Director, Customer Center of Excellence, RLDatix 

The questions healthcare leaders may be asking

ASHRM 2026 is a chance to arrive with sharper questions about the risks, priorities and pressures shaping healthcare today. What signals are we missing from patients and  staff or incident data? Where do our teams struggle to turn safety information into action? How are other organizations defining responsible AI adoption in settings where trustand clinical judgment matter? What happens after a serious incident, and how do leaders support both immediate response and long-term learning? How can governance become easier for teams to use, not just easier to document? These questions can help attendees move through the conference with intent.

Sessions and speakers to look out for

ASHRM has confirmed several sessions and speakers that point to the conversations attendees may want to prioritize.  

• The opening keynote will feature Paul Epstein, a former NFL and NBA executive and author focused on decision-making and leadership.  
• Chris Allman and Maggie Neustadt are scheduled to lead a case law update, which may be especially useful for attendees tracking legal and regulatory developments that affect healthcare risk.  
• Katie Du Fresne will moderate the President’s Panel, reflecting on the future of healthcare risk and ASHRM.  

Featured sessions also include topics such as: 

• The rise of AI agents in standard care 
• Navigating Nurse liability  
• Leading your hospital through the aftermath of a violent incident or active assailant event. 

Rather than trying to attend everything, healthcare leaders may find it helpful to choose sessions that connect directly to their organization’s current challenges, then use peer conversations to pressure-test what those ideas could mean in practice. 

Who will benefit most from the event?

ASHRM 2026 will be especially relevant for healthcare professionals focused on reducing risk and improving safety. It will also speak to those helping their organizations respond to complex events. This includes risk managers, patient safety leaders, quality teams, compliance professionals, legal teams, claims teams and clinical operations leaders. It is also relevant for executives responsible for enterprise risk or organizational resilience. 

The event may be useful for hospitals, health systems and other care organizations facing regulatory change or incident response challenges. It may also help teams thinking through staff safety, litigation exposure or technology governance. 

Different attendees will likely take different value from the event. Executives may use it to understand emerging priorities.  While operational and risk teams may come away with practical examples and questions they can adapt with colleagues. 

How to prepare for ASHRM 2026

Before you arrive, choose two or three assumptions you want to validate: for example, whether AI governance has moved beyond early exploration, whether patient voice is being integrated into safety learning or whether workforce safety is being discussed as part of enterprise risk. Review the agenda against those assumptions and identify sessions that can help test them. If several colleagues are attending, divide sessions by theme rather than by schedule convenience, then compare what each person heard. Prepare questions for that go beyond “what works?” and ask “what changed because of it?” During the event, capture examplesand evidence of emerging consensus. That will make it easier to return with insights your team can act on, rather than a general summary of sessions attended. 

What RLDatix will be exploring

At ASHRM 2026, RLDatix will be there to listen, learn and continue the conversations healthcare leaders are already having about risk, safety, workforce pressure and technology. We will be paying close attention to whether patient voice, staff concerns, incident trends, claims experience and operational data are being connected in more practical ways, or whether those signals still sit in separate parts of the organization. We also want to test whether AI is being discussed mainly as a technology opportunity or as a governance and safety challenge. The questions we ask attendees will be focused on lived realities: what is harder than it should be, where teams are seeing progress and what prevents better information from becoming better action. 

“We’re especially interested in the questions that do not have simple answers yet: how teams make risk visible before it becomes urgent, how they protect time for learning, and how they decide which changes are realistic in busy care environments. At ASHRM 2026, we’ll be listening for the practical choices healthcare leaders are making, not just the challenges they are naming.” 

Kimberli Corcoran, MSN, RN, NE-BC 
Executive Director, Customer Center of Excellence, RLDatix 

Say Hello to RLDatix at ASHRM 

If the themes in this article reflect the questions your team is already asking, we would welcome the chance to hear more in Phoenix.  

RLDatix will be at Booth #301 as a Gold Sponsor, and our team will also be involved through an Industry Symposium, Innovation Award sponsorship and an invite-only customer reception. This is your invitation to continue the specific conversations likely to shape ASHRM 2026: how teams identify risk earlier, make safety learning more actionable, support staff through complex events and think responsibly about technology.  

Visit Booth #301 or arrange a meeting with RLDatix before the event so we can learn what your organization is focused on and share what we are hearing from others across healthcare.

What comes after the event?

After ASHRM 2026, healthcare leaders will decide what information from the event is most relevant for their own teams. RLDatix will publish a follow-up article to help make that reflection easier. We’ll compare the expectations going into the event with what was actually discussed in Phoenix, highlighting the themes, practical takeaways and unresolved questions that may help teams continue internal conversations around risk, safety, workforce pressure, technology and safer care. 

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