On Sunday the Providence Journal Sunday profiled the adoption of information technology, including electronic medical records (EMRs) and computer physician order entry (CPOE), at Lifespan health system in Rhode Island. Since launching its IT agenda in 1995, the Providence-based health system has converted to EMRs and persuaded approximately 1,100 physicians to use handheld computers to track patient information, noteworthy achievements in the health care industry, where IT adoption is "typically arthritic," according to the Journal.
Currently, Lifespan is implementing CPOE at its three hospitals and the technology is already available in the medical intensive care unit at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. Rhode Island Hospital's ICU is equipped with 32 computers, roughly one-third of which can be used to access the unit's wireless network. Physicians can use the computers to access patients' EMRs and lab test results as soon as they become available, improving the quality of information available at the point of care. "Computers in the ICU don't really change the course of treatment [but they] improve the efficiency of care," said Dr. Mitchell Levy, director of the Rhode Island Hospital ICU.
Administrators plan to roll out CPOE in the other two hospitals' ICUs next, followed by installations in additional hospital units. Administrators say the system will process about 20% of physician orders across the health system by the end of next year, and approximately 80% of all orders will be processed electronically by mid 2004.
Other Lifespan IT projects include an "almost completely" robotic laboratory and a bar code system for patient prescriptions. Lifespan has spent approximately $10 million per year on its IT agenda since 1995, the Journal reports (Freyer, 8/4).