What we're all about.
Teamwork
Better together, for a healthier Rhode Island.
Lifespan, Care New England and Brown share an important characteristic that makes them natural partners: Each is a not-for-profit organization that, consistent with its charitable purposes, is charged with serving the public good. In the case of Lifespan and Care New England, the core mission is to protect and improve the health of the communities they serve. In the case of Brown, and specifically The Warren Alpert Medical School and the School of Public Health, the mission is to improve health and health care through education, research and biomedical discovery.
The final piece is decreasing health disparities and increasing access to health care. Hospitals, health care providers and medical schools play the critical role of supporting communities and individuals who have different levels of health literacy, and making health care accessible.
If the providers of health care can join with the medical school to provide integrated care to families from the cradle to end-of-life, it’s going to make a big difference for people’s lives.
Our vision for Rhode Island.
Together, we are focused on:
Expand commitments to our community.
We are better together
Together, we will amplify our focus on eliminating health disparities and improving the community health status as a primary focus of the integrated academic health system. Both Lifespan and Care New England have deep roots in the community and invest millions in community programs and services, and more than half of all of the doctors who have gone to The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University as both medical students and residents remain in the state to practice medicine in Rhode Island. An integration of health care systems with participation by the physicians of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and resulting research capabilities will bring about a broad range of community benefits from the complementary strengths of the three organizations:

Upon successful establishment of the integrated academic health system, Lifespan and Care New England will work with our community partners and pledge an additional $10 million of new money over three years. Areas of focus will include:
- Enhanced access to primary care and behavioral health services
- Strategies that advance solutions to social determinants of health
- Expand and enhance participation in Medicaid Accountable Entity Program to serve our most vulnerable populations

The integrated academic health system will decrease health disparities and increase access to health care. Hospitals, health care providers, and medical schools play the critical role of supporting communities and individuals who have different levels of health literacy and making health care accessible.

The integrated academic health system will improve population health and reduce health disparities in Rhode Island while reducing costs by using innovative “big data-”informed strategies that have been developed and tested by leading researchers.

With the participation of clinicians, public health practitioners and researchers, we will promote healthy environments in Rhode Island communities that lead to reductions in racial and ethnic disparities in health.

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We will collaborate with payers, including the state government, to develop ways to prevent deadly and costly diseases by reducing smoking, obesity, substance abuse, exposure to environmental toxins and more.
Keep high-quality care local.
We are better together

Together, we are better positioned to address many of the underlying chronic health conditions of our residents, including cancer, heart disease, neurological problems, children’s diseases and conditions, behavioral health/substance misuse, women’s health, and obesity.

We will advance quality by demonstrating improvement in hospital-acquired conditions, reducing readmissions, and maintaining/improving national rating benchmarks.

We will educate cadres of outstanding future physicians, nurses and other health care professionals and public health practitioners, many of whom will live and work in the region after graduation.

With Lifespan, Care New England and Brown working together, the integrated academic health system will be positioned to receive National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation, which is the highest classification for cancer care across the country.

A key benefit of the academic health system is that it allows for the integration of medical innovation and world-class research to inform clinical care in such areas as cancer, women’s health, and brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS. There is a transformational opportunity to move research from the laboratory bench at Brown into the hands of clinicians taking care of patients at the hospital bedside.

We will play a major role in providing patients the best possible individualized and integrated care from world-class physicians who are attracted to Rhode Island by the vibrant academic and research environment.
Keep healthcare costs down.
We are better together
Rhode Island is unique among the 50 states with its regulatory structure through the state’s Office of Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC), which caps the increase reimbursement rate insurers pay to hospitals.
In addition, both Lifespan and Care New England have voluntarily committed to support the governor’s health care cost trend initiative to hold the total annual health care spending increases to 3.2%. This initiative urges not only hospitals but the entire health care delivery system to limit both unit price increases as well as utilization demand, while meeting certain quality parameters that ensure the populations served are being treated equitably and at the highest standards.
OHIC regulation and the governor’s health care trend initiative help ensure a reliable expectation of premium costs for businesses who provide health benefits to their employees.

By combining, Lifespan and Care New England can utilize a common electronic health record (EMR), making information more readily available in real time to clinicians. This will result in lower health care costs through decreased ordering of diagnostic tests which often occurs when patients migrate between systems.

The new integrated academic health system will collaborate with payers, including the state government, to develop ways to prevent deadly and costly diseases by reducing smoking, obesity, substance abuse, exposure to environmental toxins, and more.
Serve as an economic engine for Rhode Island.
We are better together
The health care sector has traditionally been an economic mainstay, providing stability and job growth in communities. Hospitals are one of the top sources of good paying, private-sector jobs. The goods and services hospitals purchase from other businesses create additional economic value for the community.

Together, Lifespan, Care New England and Brown will be a powerful economic engine that attracts federal research funding, generates biomedical innovation, attracts and retains talent, and attracts and creates new companies. These investments will support existing jobs and create new jobs for the people of Rhode Island. We will aim to foster innovation and economic development, collaborating with other Rhode Island academic, civic, and business organizations.

Collectively, Lifespan, Care New England, The Warren Alpert Medical School and the Providence VA Medical Center (Brown’s other academic affiliate), will conduct groundbreaking research from the bench to bedside. This research is directed at preventing and curing disease, providing more effective and lower-cost medical care, and improving population health.

The integrated academic health system will support the creation of a “bio-innovation ecosystem” in which research carried out by bench-scientists working with clinician-scientists generates intellectual property that, in turn, attracts venture funding and partnerships with industry.

The new integrated academic health system will propel the health and life sciences sector in the region by cultivating innovation in medical technology and biomedicine, advances in medical devices, regenerative medicine and pharmaceuticals. The integrated academic health system has the potential for Providence to be a leader along with successful health care and life sciences hubs such as Boston, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
Commit to a stable and diverse workforce.
We are better together
Lifespan and Care New England are complementary organizations, with little overlap in clinical services. Together, we will focus on retaining and attracting a diverse workforce, using data across all areas of system employment.

Section summary
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We will honor existing labor contracts.

We will provide robust training, retraining and retention programs for existing and new employees.
Enhance our academic ecosystem, and attract world-class talent.
We are better together
Brown University is committed to providing a minimum of $125 million over five years in support of the development of the integrated academic health system. Brown will participate on the governing board of the newly merged health system and play a key role in integrating medical education and research with clinical practice across the combined system’s hospitals.
The creation of an integrated academic health system that brings together The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University with Lifespan and Care New England is an opportunity to integrate the expertise and capacity of three organizations to offer excellent, coordinated care to patients and create a unified academic medical center that can fuel discovery and treatments.
“Removing the separation between Care New England and Lifespan will improve our ability to serve the community’s health care needs, to optimally educate the next generation of medical professionals, to grow our combined research portfolios, and to contribute to the state’s plans to cultivate a thriving biomedical economy in Providence and Rhode Island.”
—Christina H. Paxson, PhD | President, Brown University


“If you learned from your doctor the devastating news that you had cancer, you want to go to a place that maximizes your chances of having a great outcome. You want to go to a place where you have the best care you can get from a diagnostic and therapeutic perspective — a place that does cancer research, but that also has the latest in protocol-driven therapies so you can be with your family for many years to come. And this is the difference that a unified academic medical center can make in patient lives. This is real.”
—Jack A. Elias, MD | Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Brown School of Public Health educate cadres of outstanding future physicians and public health practitioners, many of whom live and work in the region, contributing to bio-innovation and supporting quality care for patients. More than 50 percent of physicians who receive their education and training at Brown remain in the state.
The integration of health care systems and research will bring about the tight integration of and alignment between clinical care, population health management, medical education, biomedical research and innovation, and research on health care quality, effectiveness and cost.

A newly merged Lifespan and Care New England, in partnership with Brown, will be positioned to receive a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation, which is the highest classification for cancer care across the country.

We can make a transformative impact on brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS by bringing the hospitals together with world-class scientists, neurosurgeons and neurologists to develop protocol-driven therapies for patients.

For women’s health, we have the opportunity to deepen the integration of clinical care, research and education while bringing together the complementary strengths of two health systems.

Combined, Lifespan, Care New England, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, plus the Providence VA Medical Center (Brown’s other academic affiliate) brought over $210 million of external research funding into Rhode Island in Fiscal Year 2020.
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