Key Takeaways
- WellSpan Health, a leading health care system, is migrating its full technology infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to establish a foundation for delivering next-generation, AI-enabled health care solutions.
- The migration is expected to be complete by April 2026 and will unify disparate data systems, achieve operational efficiencies, and improve care for 1.2 million patients across nine hospitals and 250+ facilities.
- The transition will enable WellSpan to move away from a data center-based model and deploy AI technology rapidly, freeing clinicians from thousands of hours of administrative work annually.
- The collaboration with AWS will provide a secure, compliant cloud with built-in AI governance and responsible AI frameworks, protecting patient information and enabling the deployment of AI-powered solutions.
Introduction to WellSpan Health’s Cloud Migration
WellSpan Health, the leading health care system serving Central Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland, has announced plans for a comprehensive cloud migration of its full technology infrastructure. Together with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider, WellSpan will transition its applications, data, and environments from traditional data centers to AWS. This migration will establish the foundation for delivering next-generation, AI-enabled health care solutions that reduce administrative burden and improve outcomes for patients across the region and beyond.
Benefits of the Cloud Migration
The migration of systems and clinical applications, which serve 1.2 million patients across nine hospitals and 250+ facilities, is expected to be complete by April 2026, one of the fastest full-scale migrations in the health care industry. This transformation enables WellSpan to unify disparate data systems for care teams and patients alike, achieving operational efficiencies and care improvements that fragmented systems are unable to deliver. The transition allows WellSpan to move away from a data center-based model and enables the rapid deployment and scale of AI technology.
Enabling Next-Generation Health Care Solutions
WellSpan’s strategic partner, General Catalyst’s Health Assurance Transformation Company (HATCo), facilitated the collaboration with AWS to support the migration. WellSpan’s transformation journey benefits from HATCo’s specialized technology solutions, as well as General Catalyst and AWS’s significant partnership to improve patient outcomes, which was announced in January 2025. The collaboration with AWS will provide a secure, compliant cloud with built-in AI governance and responsible AI frameworks, protecting patient information and enabling the deployment of AI-powered solutions.
Accelerating Innovation and Efficiency
The transition to AWS will enable WellSpan to deploy new clinical capabilities that transform patient care while advancing its overall innovation strategy. When a physician can access complete patient imaging in seconds instead of hours, we’re not just modernizing technology—we’re improving patient outcomes. The new cloud infrastructure also enables WellSpan to quickly implement solutions that will free its clinicians from thousands of hours of administrative work annually, so they can focus on what they do best: caring for their communities.
Key Benefits of the AWS Collaboration
The collaboration with AWS will provide several key benefits, including a full portfolio migration, approved architectures, unified AI-ready data, accelerated results, and improved outcomes. WellSpan will transition its applications and data from on-premises data centers to AWS, including full IT environments and specialized applications for functions such as nursing, cardiology, pharmacy, and the company’s supply chain systems. This represents approximately 7.5 petabytes of clinical and non-clinical data and more than 300 applications—the most comprehensive health system cloud migration in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Security and Compliance
AWS will deliver secure, WellSpan-specific architectures tailored to each build, ensuring compliance and reliability across the health system. The transition to AWS will also provide elastic infrastructure, enabling WellSpan to scale computing resources dynamically, supporting seasonal demand fluctuations without infrastructure investments, as well as the rapid deployment of new services across multiple locations simultaneously. AWS offers the highest network availability of any cloud provider, with more than 166 HIPAA-eligible services and certifications for global compliance standards, including HITRUST CSF.
Conclusion
In conclusion, WellSpan Health’s comprehensive cloud migration to AWS is a significant step towards establishing a foundation for delivering next-generation, AI-enabled health care solutions. The migration will unify disparate data systems, achieve operational efficiencies, and improve care for 1.2 million patients across nine hospitals and 250+ facilities. The collaboration with AWS will provide a secure, compliant cloud with built-in AI governance and responsible AI frameworks, protecting patient information and enabling the deployment of AI-powered solutions. With the expected completion of the migration by April 2026, WellSpan Health is poised to become a premier partner for technology leaders across the country, delivering exceptional care to its patients.