This year, HCA Healthcare and Google Cloud have expanded their partnership by exploring ways to integrate Google’s generative AI into HCA’s workflows. The most developed project under this initiative is a pilot that began in February in which HCA’s emergency department physicians are testing a voice-enabled medical dictation tool to save them time on clinical documentation.

HCA and Tenet reported net incomes for the second quarter, while CHS posted a net loss. All three health systems found themselves in a better financial position in Q2 2023 than they were in Q2 of last year, driven in large part by declining contract labor expenses.

The nation’s two largest for-profit hospital chains — HCA and Tenet — increased their EBITDA as salary and benefit obligations became less burdensome in Q1. Unsurprisingly, the story for nonprofit hospitals is a bit different. For this class of health systems, the stress associated with labor costs is subsiding, but operating margins are having a difficult time bouncing back, according to a new Moody’s report.

HCA Healthcare recently suffered a data breach affecting 1,038 hospitals and physician clinics across 20 states. The health system said hackers stole data from an external data storage location “exclusively used to automate the formatting of email messages.” It also said that the incident has not caused any disruption to HCA’s daily operations or the services it provides to patients.

The healthcare sector accounts for 8.5% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Health systems have a moral obligation to reduce these emissions, experts argued during HIMSS23. The panelists shared tips about climate change mitigation strategies, such as to ask all tech vendors for their carbon reduction plan and to look for savings in the energy budget.

Workers at the largest for-profit health system in the country, HCA Healthcare, have planned a rally for Thursday. The goal of the rally is to show HCA that its workers know how profitable the company is and that they won’t be able to tolerate poor staffing levels for much longer.

Financial analysts have said that 2022 may have been the worst year for hospital finances in decades. This year looks like it will be yet another year of financial underperformance, with rural providers in especially dire circumstances.

Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google and IBM can’t disrupt healthcare with the same approach they have used to enter other industries, HCA Healthcare CEO Sam Hazen said at HLTH 2022. He argued that technology companies won’t be able to infiltrate healthcare from afar. Instead, they must embed themselves into everyday healthcare interactions at hospitals in order for their products and services to be truly impactful.

A survey by the Service Employees International Union found that 89% of polled nurses and healthcare workers at HCA Healthcare feel staff shortages at their hospital are hurting patients. Union leaders urged hospital leaders to urgently address the shortage.

A class-action lawsuit, filed by six North Carolina residents, alleges that HCA Healthcare bought Mission Health to gain monopolistic control in the Western part of the state, enabling it to drive up prices while lowering the quality of care.

The health system and technology giant are teaming up to create a data analytics platform and tools that support workflow management. Google Cloud will gain access to the massive trove of patient information gathered at HCA’s 184 hospitals in accordance with predetermined privacy rules.

HCA Healthcare posted a $1.07 billion profit in the second quarter, despite a dropoff in patient volumes due to the cancelation of elective procedures. A large portion of that stemmed from relief funds allocated through the CARES Act.

Civica Rx, announced earlier this year, formally established with $30 million in philanthropy money, a former Amgen exec as CEO and a focus on 14 drugs facing shortages.