May 3, 2002

Since the January launch of the new patient administration project called Patient Administrative Cycle Enhancements (PACE), teams of employees have been working diligently in the first phase of the three-year project. The goals of the project include redesigning administrative processes associated with patient care, providing enhanced technology to support these streamlined processes and ultimately providing a significant financial benefit to the hospital. The project is a collaborative effort between the MGH and the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO).

"Transitioning from the way we currently operate to the PACE model prepares the MGH and the MGPO for a 'quantum leap' into a future state of conducting business," says Nancy Gagliano, MD, vice president for MGH Physician Practice Management and Service Improvement and one of the project's sponsors. "While it is difficult to predict what the payor environment will be like in the future, we recognize that we can't make drastic business changes unless we first set the necessary groundwork. PACE positions the hospital and the MGPO to one day be as great administratively as we are clinically."

Currently, PACE teams are evaluating how certain administrative functions will change with the new model — functions such as patient registration, referral processing, financial counseling and determining insurance eligibility.

The practice team, pictured below, has representation from the MGH and MGPO Primary Care and Specialty practices. Led by Michael Gillespie of the Department of Medicine, the PACE team is focusing on recommendations for an initial design for referral processing that will be further developed in the coming weeks.

Members of the PACE practice team
meet weekly to discuss issues about implementation.