February 1, 2002

The project, called Patient Administrative Cycle Enhancements (PACE), will redesign administrative processes associated with patient care, provide state-of-the-art technology to support these streamlined processes and ultimately provide a significant financial benefit to the hospital.

According to Nancy Gagliano, MD, vice president for MGH Physician Practice Management and Service Improvement and one of the project's sponsors, PACE will reengineer the registration and referral processes both for the hospital and for the MGPO. "One of our goals is to increase patient satisfaction by making our main administrative operations more consistent, efficient and customer-friendly," says Gagliano. "This includes everything from scheduling an outpatient appointment to tracking financial data and processing insurance information."

Another goal of PACE is to simplify patient information systems. The hospital and the MGPO currently use multiple systems — such as PATCOM, PCIS and IDX — which require employees to move back and forth between various computer screens. The PACE project will streamline and simplify these operations and provide technological support for system redesigns. "Not only will PACE create an environment that is more patient-focused, but it also will redesign our work to make it easier for employees to serve our patients better," says Jim Heffernan, chief financial officer for the MGPO and a PACE project sponsor. "Patients can access services easily enough, but administratively problems arise because our systems are too complicated. PACE will change that."

The promise of improved fiscal performance for the hospital and the MGPO is a driving force behind the substantial organizational commitment to the PACE project. With an investment of $22 million over the course of three years, PACE is the largest capital project for this fiscal year. Most of the operating expenses will go toward establishing a contact center, which will be a centralized unit of employees focusing proactively on patient registration, referral management and financial counseling.

According to Sally Mason Boemer, vice president of MGH Finance and the third PACE project sponsor, the majority of the financial benefit will come from decreasing claim rejections from payors. "We hope to increase our payor collection rate significantly," says Mason Boemer. "Insurance companies change their systems all the time, so we need to update our systems accordingly to ensure better relationships with our payors. There is a significant financial risk if we don't move ahead with this project – we will continue to lose money in rejected claims."

Staff involved with the PACE project note that this will be a large and complicated initiative, requiring MGHers' cooperation and support. "We face many challenges with a project of this magnitude," says Mason Boemer. "With the commitment and enthusiasm of our employees, along with ongoing communication and flexibility, this project will be successful. It will make the MGH a better place for patients and staff."