Excellence at an Enterprise Company | Lifespan Corp.
Becoming a leader in providing health care and in research has been instrumental in allowing Lifespan Corp. to succeed in an ever-changing and uncertain industry.
That success has earned Lifespan national recognition, but it’s the patients at the nonprofit’s hospitals that are reaping the rewards.
“Our focus is on improving the health of our region’s residents – from promoting and providing preventive care to investing in leading-edge medical technology,” said Dr. Timothy J. Babineau, president and CEO, in an email. “To remain a reliable and stable community resource for the long term … we must remain focused on business strategies that accelerate strategic market growth while reducing the cost of health care.”
Lifespan is Rhode Island’s largest hospital system, including Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. It’s also the leading private employer in the state with 14,000 employees, which is expected to grow in fiscal year 2018. From 2009 to 2016, Lifespan has increased its workforce by 21.5 percent, compared to the state’s growth of 2.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some of the highlights at Lifespan in 2017 have been the unification of cancer care services and research, the opening of the Lifespan Recovery Center to fight against opioid addiction and a substantial investment in Life Chart, Lifespan’s electronic health-record platform.
Life Chart allows hospitals and care centers access to a single health record for each patient throughout the system, and helps keep costs down. Babineau calls Life Chart one of the most significant decisions the company has made over the last five years.
With this system, Lifespan has been able to avoid duplication in diagnostic tests; create new analytic capabilities for the most effective protocols for populations of patients with the same disease/condition; reduce emergency department visits and readmissions; improve workflow, communication and environment for the clinicians; enhance quality and patient outcomes; develop partnerships with like-minded organizations using the same Epic-based system, such as the partnership with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute; and create greater efficiency in revenue.
Rhode Island Hospital’s stroke team has received national attention for treating ischemic strokes, the most common type of stroke. The national average from patient arrival to opening the blood vessel is 167 minutes, while at Rhode Island Hospital it is 86 minutes. Time to remove the clot can mean the difference between dying, suffering disability, or recovering. Treatment administered a minute quicker can speed a patient to disability-free recovery a week earlier.
Five clinical trials in 2015 showed a dramatic benefit to the thrombectomy procedure.
“This prompted us to dramatically rethink our workflow to become faster, in order to benefit more patients,” said Dr. Mahesh V. Jayaraman, a neurocardiologist at Rhode Island Hospital, in an email. “Our outcomes have been tremendous. We are able to achieve near-complete reopening of the blocked area in almost 90 percent of cases, and are able to do so typically in less than 30 minutes. For patients who come directly to Rhode Island Hospital, and who are independent prior to treatment, almost two-thirds of those patients treated return to being independent. That’s a dramatic improvement over the less than 20 percent chance of being independent without the rapid treatment.”
Jayaraman says that based on population estimates, there is one patient per day in the Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts area who could be a candidate.
“We must continually work to find new and more efficient ways to care for our patients, making sure we have the right people who are working in the right place with the right resources,” said Babineau.
“As a major academic medical center and research institution, we have the opportunity – the privilege – to be part of great scientific discoveries that will shape health care in the future. Lifespan’s goal is not just to keep pace, but to innovate and lead.” n
