By Hilary Waldman

Hartford HealthCare and GE Healthcare formalized a unique seven-year relationship Tuesday designed to enhance the patient experience and make health care more affordable by harnessing the power of advanced analytics and imaging technology to improve patient flow, enhance imaging services and provide seamless transfers.

“The organization we have built is attracting the very best organizations in the country as collaborators to fix healthcare and make outcomes consistently excellent,’’ said Hartford HealthCare CEO Elliot Joseph, minutes before signing the agreement in a ceremony at Hartford Hospital.

John Flannery, CEO of GE Healthcare, at Tuesday’s press conference.

John Flannery, president and CEO of GE HealthCare, said his company operates in 130 countries and the goal everywhere is the same: to improve access to care, provide better clinical outcomes and drive down cost. A native of Connecticut, he said he was excited that Hartford HealthCare is the first organization in New England to join GE in this mission.

Highlights of the collaboration include development of a Hartford HealthCare care logistics center that will become the nerve center of the system, allowing clinicians to use data from the Epic electronic medical record and other systems to move patients around the system, ensuring that everyone gets the right care in the right place at the right time.

To do that, Hartford HealthCare will rely on the type of technology pioneered by companies such as Google and Amazon to build predictability into the complexities of running a health system. Besides providing better care and outcomes, the collaboration is expected to save $14 million over the first seven years.

HHC President and COO Jeffrey A. Flaks said Hartford HealthCare has been an innovator in patient transfers since it started moving patients who needed a higher level of care from MidState Medical Center to Hartford Hospital years ago. Back then, to make sure patients’ imaging records traveled with them, X-ray, CT and MRI images were transferred to a compact disk, which was then attached to the patient’s leg with saran wrap.

“Now,’’ Flaks told HHC and GE leaders gathered Tuesday, “things appear before the patient even arrives.’’

The technology-driven coordination, he said, “means patients with heart attacks have quicker door-to-balloon time; patients who would dwell in the emergency room will have almost immediate access to critical care beds.”

The new Hartford HealthCare Care Logistics Center, which GE will help HHC to implement, will resemble a NASA-style mission control board, with real-time updates of the entire Hartford Healthcare system. Notifications will alert managers when additional staff is needed, which aims to provide for quicker access to diagnosis and treatment and seamless transitions, especially for transfer patients who may require advanced levels of care.

What does all this mean to you as a patient? John Flannery and Elliot Joseph discuss that on the latest HealthCare Matters podcast: