Healthcare Beyond the Cloud – Optimizing Both Cost and Care | WIRED Brand Lab

January of 2020,

Providence received the very first COVID patient

in the United States.

From the very beginning,

we were at the center of the pandemic.

Luckily, we were already in process of moving to the cloud.

If that happened a year earlier

and we were still on-premise,

we wouldn't have had those basic capabilities

to really serve our communities.

The work that we had done for Providence IT

allowed them to scale effectively.

They were able to leverage the bandwidth

and hyper compute of the cloud.

We had these precious resources

like PPE and ventilators.

Using the advanced tools,

we're able to predict where ventilators were needed

and we're able to move those precious resources around.

[building bright music]

Providence is one of the largest nonprofit health systems

in the United States.

We were formed by women 160 years ago.

Something that we focus on

is serving the vulnerable in our communities.

I was at Microsoft for 27 years.

Not having healthcare background actually was helpful.

Bringing that tech background

allowed me to look at problems in a unique way.

I was able to evaluate the landscape,

realize we're 15 to 20 years behind other industries,

and come in, simplify, modernize, and innovate,

by looking at the cloud to put our workload there

and allow us to focus on what we do.

EY's Technology Transformation team

collaborated with Providence IT.

Because I'd worked with EY Consulting at Microsoft,

I knew they had the technical chops.

EY was a natural choice to bring in the digital components,

as well as the healthcare expertise

that I needed to be successful.

B.J. and I worked together

to set up a repeatable cloud migration factory.

We migrated their applications

from on-prem over to Azure Cloud.

By being on-premise, we're missing out

on all the innovations happening on the cloud,

machine learning, artificial intelligence.

What we needed first

is to simplify the patient experience.

I don't think anybody thinks it's a simple process,

and our caregivers are overwhelmed.

That's really a reflection

of our hodgepodge of applications.

An application in the health system can be

what you use to check in at the front desk,

what an oncology doctor uses to keep track of your symptoms.

A lot of the applications they were running

were very antiquated without application owners.

The ownership is important

after the application is moved to cloud.

Instead of just lifting and shifting,

we did an extensive inventory.

We were able to retire 60% of our applications.

When I joined Providence, we had a lot of data centers.

When you go into a mall and look at a major retailer,

you don't see payroll stuffed in the back.

Well, in healthcare,

by putting a data center in the hospital,

you're taking this very precious real estate

and using it for non-clinical care.

We were easily able to align

on the security and the safety

of moving data to the cloud.

We also worked with his team in educating them

so after our work was completed,

they would have the skills to continue doing this.

Providence has a bold goal

of being carbon-negative by 2030.

In 2021 alone, we reduced our energy consumption

equivalent to 800 homes in the Seattle area

and reduced our storage needs

about the equivalent of seven times the Library of Congress.

70% of technology transformation

is focused on sustainability.

Our alignment with Providence's initiatives

focus on creating innovation

and building a better working world.

Trust is critical in endeavor like this.

Having our financial goals aligned with EY was very helpful.

EY Consulting focuses on innovative solutions

which help clients optimize for today

and innovate for tomorrow.

These are aspirational solutions in healthcare

that are focused on the client and human touch.

When we complete that journey to the cloud,

we will then be able to focus on our core competencies,

and together we are able to build great solutions

for our patients and caregivers.

[sea birds chirping]