October 18, 2002

The systems team for the Patient Administrative Cycle Enhancements (PACE) project has been working for the past few months to make significant enhancements to both current and new systems for PACE, which will ultimately redesign outpatient administrative processes.

Comprised of several subgroups, the systems team (above) has been focusing on various areas, including integrating the outpatient registration and billing systems with PATCOM, where inpatient registration and billing currently exist. Recently, an important milestone was reached when the Patcom system hardware was successfully upgraded to handle the hospital's outpatient volume.

Outpatient scheduling and referral systems will remain on IDX. The subgroups have been designing these new applications and ensuring that the information systems will share data appropriately once the project is completed.

In addition, other subgroups are working on selecting and installing a new telephone system that will be used in the new contact center. This new technology will enable both contact center personnel and practice staff to efficiently operate under the new PACE model.

For more information about the PACE project, visit the website at http://intranet.partners.org/mghidx/pace/ or send an e-mail to PACEProject@partners.org