HCA Healthcare and Google Cloud Enter New Partnership

On Wednesday, HCA Healthcare announced a new multiyear strategic relationship with Google Cloud to improve analytics-driven processes and digital transformation. The deal’s financial specifics were not disclosed. Health System Officials said, “The partnership between the cloud giant and Nashville-based HCA, with its 186 hospitals and 2,000 ambulatory sites nationwide, is aimed at building next generation operational models focused on actionable insights and improved workflows.”

The goal is to increase quality, safety, and efficiency by developing and refining new workflows and developing innovative clinical decision support. Beyond that, the alliance aims to provide physicians and nurses with greater insights via 90,000 mobile devices already running HCA’s PatientKeeper and Mobile Heartbeat teams’ software and analytics and notifications that can keep them informed of changes in a patient’s condition.

According to Google Cloud and HCA Healthcare, new data-driven enhancements will be sought in human resources, physical plant, supply chain, and other financial and operational sectors. HCA executives believe that privacy and security will be a top priority as the health system uses patient data — it has 32 million annual contacts – to improve support for its 140,000 nurses and physicians.

Google Cloud Healthcare API and BigQuery, its database with full support for HL7v2 and FHIRv4 data standards, will be used in the agreement. Recently, HCA Healthcare has been putting more weight on its data and analytics operations. It launched new data cooperation with AHRQ earlier this year, allowing other health systems and health plans, including Johns Hopkins, Duke, Harvard Pilgrim, and others, to access HCA’s data registry to advance COVID-19 and public health research and help improve patient outcomes.