February 29, 2008

Leadership meeting outlines hospital activities

At a leadership meeting Feb. 25, MGH managers and supervisors heard updates on patient safety, process improvement and the MGH budget. Attendees were welcomed to the meeting with an inspirational song by the Voices of MGH choir.

Gregg Meyer, MD, senior vice president for the MGH/MGPO Center for Quality and Safety (CQS), announced that the CQS will be surveying MGH health care providers to better understand their perspectives on patient safety at the hospital. (For more about the patient safety culture survey, click here).

Sally Mason Boemer, senior vice president for Finance, and Cindy Aiena, budget director, reviewed the MGH's current FY '08 budget status and explained the FY '09
budget process. Through January, the hospital's operating margin of $18.6 million fell below budget by $5.5 million. Although net patient revenue was better than budget, other key drivers — including over-budget expenses mainly from salaries, wages and benefits and research revenue running below budget — contributed to a deficit. To correct this, the hospital must make a $2.1-million-per-month expense reduction from current spending levels to achieve monthly budget targets as well as make up the current $5.5 million deficit. The action plan to achieve the expense reduction includes a hiring review process; addressing utilization of overtime, temporary staff and bonuses; limiting spending on discretionary items; and monitoring telephone charges. The outlook for the FY '09 budget suggests an expected constraint on expense growth and new positions due to low volume and revenue growth rates. The hospital will need to increase focus on productivity and process improvement in the next fiscal year.

Examining process improvement inside Intel: Ginsburg, left, and Jim Heffernan, MGPO chief financial officer

Dan Ginsburg, MGPO president and chief operating officer and MGH/MGPO senior vice president for Cancer and Women's Programs, introduced Mary Cramer as the new Process Improvement program director and described how process improvement aligns with the hospital's quality and safety framework. He reviewed what the program has accomplished at the MGH to date. More than 20 process improvement projects have been completed, improving quality and safety, service, and efficiency and have revealed valuable lessons in the process. Ginsburg also described a recent visit that MGH and MGPO administrators took to an Intel chip-manufacturing plant in Hudson, Mass. Implementing more than 6,000 small and large improvements, the plant enhanced work life and increased productivity. Like Intel, the MGH will continue to integrate process improvement into the fabric of the organization.

MGH President Peter L. Slavin, MD, closed the meeting by mentioning the appointment of three new chiefs — David E. Fisher, MD, PhD, chief of the Department of Dermatology; Ronald E. Kleinman, MD, chief of the Department of Pediatrics and
physician-in-chief of the MassGeneral Hospital for Children; and Jeanine Wiener-Kronish, MD, chief of the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care. He congratulated Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, MS, FAAN, senior vice president for Patient Care and chief nurse, and Marianne Ditomassi, RN, MSN, MBA, executive director for Patient Care Services Operations, and the entire nursing staff for their work coordinating the recent Magnet site visit (For more about the Magnet visit, click here). He also commended the leadership of the MGH Executive Committee on Research for a successful Scientific Advisory Committee meeting. In closing, Slavin thanked W. Gerald Austen, MD, chair of the MGH Chiefs' Council, and the MGH Development Office for strong philanthropy efforts in the first four months of FY '08.