Rhode Island’s largest hospital system will soon have a new name.
Following an expanded affiliation agreement, Lifespan will change its name to Brown University Health, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 and Lifespan President and Chief Executive Officer John Fernandez announced Thursday morning at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. The name change will likely go into effect later this year, with a several-year rebrand process to follow.
Per the agreement, the University will invest $150 million into Lifespan over the next seven years beginning this July. After that period, Lifespan will invest $15 million annually back to the Warren Alpert Medical School.
“The investments from Brown are critical and will help Lifespan address its immediate challenges,” Fernandez said. “Lifespan will still need to continuously improve its operations while expanding and diversifying its revenue opportunities and work toward creating a more balanced reimbursement structure on par with those of neighboring states.”
The Brown Investment Office will also manage $600 million to $800 million of Lifespan’s portfolio, to be phased in over the next four years. This past decade, Brown’s endowment has doubled in size; in its 2023 fiscal year, the endowment saw a 2.7% return.
Lifespan owns Rhode Island Hospital, the principal teaching hospital for Warren Alpert. Miriam Hospital and Bradley Hospital, both Lifespan hospitals, are also major teaching affiliates for the University. Lifespan, which is home to 11 of Warren Alpert’s departments, has been affiliated with the medical school since 1969.
In addition, the Dean of Warren Alpert — currently Mukesh K. Jain — will become Lifespan’s chief academic officer and an ex officio member of Lifespan’s Board of Directors alongside the Brown president.
“Brown and Lifespan are taking important steps to strengthen our longstanding affiliation with the goal of improving the health of families in Rhode Island, both through medical advances in care and state-of-the-art medical training for the next generation of physicians,” Paxson said. “These agreements also strengthen the work we have been doing for several years to integrate research and break down barriers for physicians and scientists who translate discoveries in the lab into treatments benefiting patients.”
In October, the University announced that they planned to expand their existing affiliation Lifespan, and the Brown Corporation and Lifespan's Board of Directors voted separately on a “new nonbinding term sheet.” That month, WPRI reported that Lifespan would change its name to Brown Health, but no party confirmed the name change at the time.
The University’s previous affiliation agreement expired at the end of 2023. Paxson and Jain had announced last fall that a new affiliation agreement could include a name change.
University and Lifespan representatives emphasized that the agreement is not a merger; the two organizations remain separate and independent, allowing the deal to proceed without regulatory or legislative approval, according to a University press release.
“We are sustaining efforts to capitalize on each organization’s existing strengths, strategically build research capacity, coordinate effectively with other local institutions, and create new partnerships that benefit the people and economies of Rhode Island,” Paxson said.
Previous agreements, life science investments
The new agreement follows recent affiliation expansions between Rhode Island hospital systems and Brown, in addition to increased investments into the life sciences by Rhode Island and the University.
In November 2022, the University, Lifespan and Care New England — another Rhode Island health care provider — signed an aligned research collaboration agreement that aimed to “streamline operations.” The University signed a separate agreement with Care New England in March 2023 to further streamline and eliminate administrative burdens.
In February 2022, Lifespan and Care New England withdrew an application that would have merged the two entities and created a unified academic health system in partnership with the University, after Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha rejected the merger application. If completed, the merged entity would have owned 80% of the state’s hospital infrastructure.
The University has been increasing its investments in health and life sciences, including a new Integrated Life Sciences Building in the Jewelry District. The seven-story building is slated to start construction this summer. The University also recently opened a new RNA research center in 2023 and held the first international meeting of the Human RNome project — a daunting project that looks to sequence all human RNA and its modifications.
Like Brown, Rhode Island has been investing in the life sciences sector. In FY24, Governor Dan McKee allocated $45 million dollars for life science investment.
The state also founded the Rhode Island Life Science Hub in 2023 to coordinate life science initiatives in the state. Former CEO and President of the Rhode Island Foundation Neil Steinberg ’75, who chairs the board of the Hub, had formerly served as the Vice President for Development and Campaign Director for the University.
Lifespan and Brown have both previously supported the Hub, the Providence Journal reported.
Lifespan finances
Fernandez said the industry faces significant challenges including inflation and labor shortages; at Lifespan, improper funding has led to hindered infrastructure investments.
In the first two quarters of 2024, Lifespan saw a $4.6 million operating income, though largely due to one-time funds, Providence Business News reported. Without these items, Lifespan would have a $11.2 million operating loss, according to PBN.
Lifespan’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Markell told PBN that the company is “not where we want to be on a run-rate basis,” previously aiming for a 3% operating margin this year.
Over the next two decades, Lifespan plans to spend up to $3.5 billion on improvements, including building reconfiguration and adding additional facilities, the Boston Globe reported this January.
“This enhanced relationship is one step in a broader effort to ensure that Rhode Island can continue to offer access to the highest quality medical treatments in a local setting while at the same time generating high paying job opportunities for years to come,” Fernandez said.
This story is developing, check back for updates.
Ryan Doherty is a section editor covering faculty, higher education and science and research. He is a junior concentrating in Chemistry and Economics who likes to partially complete crosswords in his free time.
