Lifespan Takes Major Step to Transform Health Care Delivery

Posted Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Selects Epic Systems technology platform for its patient-centric approach

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Lifespan, Rhode Island’s largest health care system, has made a significant commitment to redesign and re-engineer its health care delivery model. The health care system has partnered with Epic Systems Corporation, a worldwide leader in health information technology, to transform the way Lifespan hospitals deliver care by emphasizing a patient-centric model.

This model will provide patients with electronic access to their health information 24/7, enable patient communication with caregivers, eliminate duplicative and unnecessary tests, streamline the scheduling process and provide a system that will pull patient information from different caregivers into a single electronic medical record.

“Our decision to partner with Epic is so much more than an IT decision; we are undertaking a fundamental redesign of the way we deliver care throughout the Lifespan system,” said Timothy J. Babineau, MD, Lifespan’s president and chief executive officer. “Once fully deployed, the new Epic system will make it possible to exchange information at the point of care. Patients will be empowered with easy access to their health information, and providers will have exactly what they need to make decisions in real time.”

Lifespan, which includes Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, The Miriam Hospital, Bradley Hospital and Newport Hospital, selected Epic after conducting an extensive review of similar vendors. What set Epic apart from its competitors was its vast experience with large academic medical centers and the patient-centric approach the software incorporates.

The decision to select Epic supports Lifespan’s approach to provide patient care outside of the traditional hospital setting. Epic facilitates this strategy through an integrated platform that will pull information from across the continuum of care.

“Traditionally, hospitals have been at the center of care,” Babineau explained. “Now, our focus is putting the patient squarely at the center with a system that caters to the patient’s convenience.”

In addition to improving the patient experience, Lifespan expects the new system to provide many other benefits, such as:

• A single patient medical record that will be accessible throughout the entire Lifespan system. For consenting patients who travel, their record will be accessible across the country with the patients’ other caregivers who use Epic.
• A portal that will allow patients access to their health information, as well as the ability to schedule appointments electronically and communicate with their caregivers.
• Enhanced chronic disease management under an accountable care delivery model.
• Elimination of duplicate and unnecessary testing.
• Increased ability to perform clinical research and generate research funding.
• Improved patient care through enhanced and standardized processes.

Lifespan will also be making the Epic electronic medical record available to its affiliated community physician practices. This will bring patients and providers together like never before to improve patient care, quality, communication, safety and efficiency. Through the Epic system, all the providers caring for a patient will have access to the latest, most accurate patient record whether the patient is visiting the oncologist, cardiologist, primary care physician or is a patient in the hospital.

Lifespan expects to begin implementation this spring with the project being completed in 2015. The project is expected to cost $90 million.

Filed under: Bradley, Hasbro, Lifespan, Miriam, Newport, RIH,