February 25, 2005

PACE project successfully completed

After three years of planning, the PACE (Patient Administrative Cycle Enhancements) project now is completed. The overall goal of PACE, a joint project of the MGH and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO), was to make administrative operations more consistent, efficient and customer friendly. Over the course of the project, the PACE team redesigned the registration and referral processes for the hospital and the MGPO, including everything from scheduling an outpatient appointment to handling insurance information.

"The implementation of a project of this size and this importance to hospital operations was a huge task," says Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of the MGH. "It's a credit to the planning efforts of the team that there were so few disruptions to patients and clinicians."

During the last weekend in January, the PACE team marked the final phase of the project with the installation of Patcom, the new system for registration and outpatient billing. Next year, the Patcom system will produce more than 1.8 million outpatient bills.

"We especially appreciate the efforts of the nearly 140 people who worked during the implementation weekend to ensure that the system conversion went smoothly," says David F. Torchiana, MD, chairman and CEO of the MGPO.

The PACE team had two command centers — in Ruth Sleeper Hall and One Constitution Plaza — to support practices and troubleshoot issues. Adds Nancy Gagliano, MD, vice president of Physician Practice Management and Service Improvement: "Many of the team members worked around the clock and responded quickly to any problems that occurred."

"Overall, the PACE project was a great success," says Sally Mason Boemer, vice president of MGH Finance. "While it's too early to tell the long-term results, we are confident that Patcom will improve the accuracy of our billing and registration information."

One of last year's PACE highlights featured the opening of a centralized Registration and Referral Center (RRC). The RRC has state-of-the art computer systems and trained staff to handle registration and referrals. Since June 2003, the RRC has handled nearly a million registration calls. On average, the RRC processes more than 1,000 outpatient referrals every day.