When 20,000 devices were paralyzed by a bad update, a Georgia health system turned to Apple
Emory Hillandale Hospital will be the first U.S. hospital powered by Apple products.
Emory Healthcare on Thursday announced that its Emory Hillandale Hospital will be the first U.S. hospital that runs on Apple products, including the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, iMac and Mac mini. The devices will also integrate with software from Epic Systems, the leading electronic health record vendor in the nation.
Hillandale is using Apple products because they are user-friendly, require less IT support, offer cybersecurity advantages and have long-lasting hardware and battery life, Emory executives told CNBC.
Since this is new territory for the health system, Emory said it will closely monitor the devices to ensure they improve the organization's quality of care.
"It can certainly be a game changer that's not been done anywhere else in the country," Emory Healthcare CEO Dr. Joon Lee said in an interview. "And like everything else, it's not going to be without its challenges, but it really opens the door to multiple possibilities."
Emory Healthcare is an academic health system in Georgia that operates 10 hospitals and supports roughly 26,400 employees. Its Hillandale facility is a 100-bed community hospital on the outskirts of the greater Atlanta metro area.