October 20, 2000

A special reception Oct. 12 celebrated the many achievements of Operations Improvement (OI) and Specialty Care Management (SCM) and announced the launch of Clinical Performance Management (CPM). CPM is a joint MGH and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO) initiative designed to improve patient care and increase efficiency in delivering that care.

At the reception, MGH and MGPO leadership congratulated the OI and SCM teams for their years of dedication and commitment. "We have accomplished a great deal through OI and SCM, and I want to commend all of you for all that you have done for the hospital," said James J. Mongan, MD, president of the MGH.

From left, Britain Nicholson, MD, and Michael Barry, MD.

Peter L. Slavin, MD, chief executive officer of the MGPO, echoed those sentiments. "We owe a debt of gratitude to OI and SCM," he said. "There is no question that our results have made this hospital a better place for patients to receive care and a more efficient place to work."

Mongan described the completion of the OI and SCM initiatives as a phase of an ongoing effort for the hospital to improve efficiency and enhance patient care. CPM builds upon the successes of OI and SCM, but will streamline efforts and reduce redundancies. The new CPM management structure will integrate OI, SCM, Primary Care Medical Management, the length of stay task force and other clinical resource management efforts into a more comprehensive and coordinated program.

According to Slavin, who chairs the CPM Executive Committee, the CPM structure will be comprised of the Executive Committee, five executive subcommittees and nine clinical teams that were selected based on opportunity for improvement.

The CPM clinical teams include primary care, cardiac medicine and surgery, emergency services, intensive care units, neurology/ neurosurgery, musculoskeletal services, surgery, oncology and pediatrics.

From left, Peter L. Slavin, MD; James J. Mongan, MD; and W. Gerald Austen, MD.

The five executive subcommittees are capacity management, quality improvement, ancillary utilization, medical management and managed care contracts. Project management and analytic support have been consolidated to help support the CPM effort. The subcommittees and project management staff will work with the clinical teams to set goals, organize efforts and report progress back to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee will provide an overall coordination to the initiative and will report results to hospital senior management.

The main goal of CPM is to reorganize and reduce the overlap of the management efforts. "A key difference between the goals of OI and SCM and those of CPM is that the new effort is designed to help us grow our programs and explicitly improve the quality of care for our patients," said Mongan, who will co-chair the CPM Executive Committee with Slavin.

Slavin added, "Another important goal for CPM is to improve the quality of clinicians' professional lives."

The next step for CPM is to establish clinical team leadership and membership. The short-term goals of the initiative will be to develop action plans for managing the hospital's expected increase in volume through the winter months. Additional goals such as quality improvement will be added to the teams' activities during the coming months.

Program staff, from left, Shilu Mistry, Denise Epifania, Allison Sherwat, Suzanne Sokal, Joanne Curran and Laura Humphrey.