Case Study: Providence achieves reduced ED overcrowding and a modernized cloud data platform with Microsoft Power BI

Providence eases hospital overcrowding, modernizes data platform with Azure Databricks

Providence, a nonprofit health system operating 51 hospitals and 1,085 clinics across seven US states, needed to modernize an aging on-premises data ecosystem and reduce emergency department overcrowding. The organization partnered with Microsoft and adopted Azure Databricks and other Azure services alongside Microsoft Power BI to gain real-time analytics, simplify its technology stack, and improve National Emergency Department Overcrowding Score (NEDOCS) reporting.

The vendor built a cloud-based streaming solution using Azure Databricks, Azure Event Hubs, Azure Data Lake Storage, and Azure SQL Database with dashboards in Microsoft Power BI, ingesting and scoring Epic EMR messages to provide up-to-the-minute visibility (Power BI dashboards refresh within three minutes). Microsoft Power BI’s automated NEDOCS dashboard was deployed in six hospitals (with plans to scale to all 51), giving clinicians immediate insights to improve staffing, patient flow, and decision‑making while replacing manual processes with measurable, real‑time analytics.

Providence

Brett MacLaren

Chief Data Officer