Published: Sept. 30, 2010
LANSING, Mich. - Sparrow Health System ranks 22nd among top technology innovators in the country, according to a listing of 500 of the biggest and best-known companies in the United States.
The InformationWeek 500 list places Sparrow above such giants as Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin and Eli Lilly. The business technology magazine based the ranking on years of work by Sparrow staff, including hundreds of IT projects completed or in the works.
In recent years, Sparrow has fully automated its emergency care in the Sparrow Tower, which opened in 2008, and made technology innovations to improve Sparrow Laboratory Services, the 24th largest lab in the nation.
Sparrow has now begun rolling out iSparrow, a systemwide effort to allow physicians quicker electronic access to clinical records, and already has its first patients accessing their medical records via the Internet.
"The innovation that Sparrow is delivering directly enables clinicians to save lives," said Thomas A. Bres, Sparrow Vice President and Chief Information Officer. "That's a powerful use of technology that I'm sure contributed to our ranking."
The bottom line of the work is that it allows patients to have easier access to Sparrow and increases patient care and safety, said Patrick Hale, Sparrow Chief Technology Officer.
"Anytime you're being compared to the best projects in the world, with the best companies in the world, and you're in the top 25, that's a sign you're doing something right," Hale said.
To be ranked in the InformationWeek 500, companies with annual revenue of at least $250 million must complete a rigorous application about their technology strategy. The applications are reviewed by a panel of editors who determine the rankings based on quality and quantity.