June 2, 2000

At a time in which health care institutions in Massachusetts face financial difficulties, the Partners system has strengthened and matured over the past six years. That was the message that Samuel O. Thier, MD, president and CEO of Partners HealthCare System, delivered in a progress report on the system. Thier also answered questions on a variety of topics at the annual Partners Town Meeting at the MGH May 26.

Thier noted that admissions to Partners hospitals have gone up in the past year, and the number of new patients at the Partners licensed and affiliated community health centers has increased from 50,000 to 195,000 since Partners was formed in 1994. Partners Community HealthCare Inc. (PCHI), the network arm of the system, reached its goal of 1,000 primary care physicians in 1999. "PCHI doctors outrank national averages of care quality," said Thier. "New initiatives will further improve care and enhance the connection of PCHI physicians to the rest of the system."

Thier demonstrated how Partners hospitals measure up in Massachusetts and the world by showing that once again, the MGH and BWH were the number one and two top hospital recipients of NIH funding, and Partners total research activity in 1999 grew to $463 million. In addition, Partners hospitals continue to be first choice locations for doctors in training, with residency and fellowship programs among the most competitive in the country.

Thier also spoke about the significant cuts in Medicare that Massachusetts hospitals still face, despite last year's successful fight to restore $12.4 billion in Medicare funding. "We have continued to grow systemwide, while continuing to bring the costs of health care down," said Thier. "But with all of this growth brings tremendous pressure to hospital employees. We are working to ensure that we have sufficient resources to carry out our patient care, teaching and research missions, through some key system integration initiatives."

These initiatives include: quality improvement, deployment of clinical trials systemwide, increasing research collaboration among all Partners institutions and developing a plan to align incentives for institutions, physicians and administrators.

In response to a question about ongoing negotiations with Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Thier called the negotiations "professional" and said that Partners is looking at all of its options to ensure fair reimbursement for physicians and hospitals.

Jeff Davis, senior vice president for Human Resources, responded to a question about the loss of one week of earned time several years ago, saying that the MGH's time off is competitive with most — and, in fact, better than — other employers throughout the region.

Regarding the Dana-Farber/ Partners CancerCare collaboration, Thier said it has been successful in attracting the top candidates to its joint educational programs, and its collaborative clinical trials are going well. The level of clinical collaboration that Partners had hoped for through the joint venture, however, has not been realized, and efforts are under way to address this issue.

To a question about whether Partners would continue its genomics and gene therapy efforts, in the wake of recent setbacks at other institutions, Thier said that Partners is moving ahead as planned, calling gene therapy the "future of medicine."

For additional questions and answers, see Partners town meeting questions and answers.