Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health is teaming up with Microsoft to build a new high-tech hospital, according to CNBC.
Health system CEO Rod Hochman called it a "hospital of the future" that Providence St. Joseph has been working on for months with Microsoft. Providence St. Joseph plans to adapt an existing facility in the Seattle area, close to Microsoft's headquarters.
Although the project is still in the early phases, the goal is to improve Providence St. Joseph's EMR so physicians, nurses and other providers can find and share information more easily, CNBC reports.
Providence St. Joseph and Microsoft also hope the new hospital will help lower healthcare costs, as the health system will be working with Seattle's largest employer.
Mr. Hochman declined to say how many beds will occupy the hospital or the scale of the operation. He did, however, say that the two organizations have invested significant "human capital and dollars."
"We can't be a box that takes care of patients with emergency rooms attached," Mr. Hochman told CNBC. "We have to evolve to become information centers, with sophisticated outpatient and inpatient care. It'll be interesting to see how many [health systems] make it through that transition."
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