Customer Fact Sheet

Lifespan, Rhode Island's first Health System was founded in 1994 by Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. Today, Lifespan partners include the best names in health care in the region, such as Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Bradley Hospital, and Newport Hospital. Working together, Lifespan partners are strengthened by sharing their medical knowledge and expertise; building health services and programs that incorporate the best elements of what each has to offer; pooling resources to work in the most efficient and fiscally responsible manner; and staying abreast of the latest medical technology and techniques while preserving their commitments to their respective communities in a financially-challenging time.

To help achieve these goals, the health system coordinated efforts with Siemens to implement a wide-scale deployment of Siemens’ INVISION® computerized physician order entry (CPOE). To facilitate the CPOE rollout and drive physician adoption, Reid Coleman, M.D., Lifespan’s chief medical informatics officer, developed an e-mail feedback system to help IT staff work more closely with clinicians to design order sets that match physician ordering patterns and report back on system satisfaction. At Lifespan, clinicians also utilize personal digital assistants and a wireless network to review and capture pertinent patient data at the point of care. Dr. Coleman also launched a unique IT department rotation for residents. To date, 10 residents have completed one-month tours of service within the system’s IT department.

Siemens and Lifespan recognize that effective CPOE is not just about entering orders; it's about improving the entire care delivery process. CPOE helps create an interactive care model that supports decision-making, reduces variance in care, and enables providers to work together as an efficient team. With less than five percent of the nation’s hospitals utilizing CPOE, Lifespan is among the clinical informatics leaders in healthcare. With the INVISION CPOE system, 80 percent of physician orders are now computerized at Lifespan’s flagship Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, and two other hospitals in the system have also implemented CPOE. Lifespan’s success with INVISION proved to be so outstanding that Dr. Coleman was awarded a 2004 Nicholas E. Davies Award for his achievements in the field of applied medical informatics and received the fifth annual Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS) award for his pioneering work implementing Siemens INVISION.

Dr. Coleman is currently responsible for the design and implementation of the CPOE system presently used in multiple units within the Lifespan system. He is also responsible for educating private practicing physicians on the benefits of the systems and training medical and surgical staff. Dr. Coleman earned his M.D. from Brown University.

For more information visit www.lifespan.org or contact MedicalPR@sms.siemens.com.

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