November 10, 2006

Leadership meeting highlights quality and safety, island hospital affiliations, expansions and life itself

MGH managers, supervisors and department heads gathered in the O'Keeffe Auditorium Nov. 6 for a leadership meeting during which they heard about the hospital's emerging quality and safety program, financial performance, pending hospital affiliations and the research conducted by Jack W. Szostak, PhD, of the MGH Department of Molecular Biology and his colleagues.

Peter L. Slavin, MD, MGH president, reported that the MGH and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization are in the early stages of launching a new quality and safety initiative to enhance its existing systems and infrastructure focused on delivering the highest quality and safest patient care. Among the priorities is a search for a quality and safety vice president. The Emergency Department will be a special focus of the quality and safety agenda.

Slavin also mentioned the recent employer awards from Working Mother magazine and the AARP and reminded those at the meeting that the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations would be visiting the MGH sometime before Jan. 1. He also said that currently there are several national searches underway for new chiefs for Pediatrics, Anesthesia and Dermatology.

Information about the MGH's Building for the Third Century, slated to be completed in 2011, was provided. The new building will be located where the Clinics and Vincent Burnham Kennedy buildings currently stand and will include a covered ambulance bay, operating and procedure rooms, an atrium and five floors of private patient rooms.

Slavin concluded the updates by noting that, because of the hard work of staff throughout the institution, the MGH performed well during fiscal year 2006, beating its margin target.

Sally Mason Boemer, vice president for MGH Finance, described the MGH's discussions with Martha's Vineyard Hospital and Nantucket Cottage Hospital that could lead to the two island hospitals becoming affiliates of the MGH and Partners. Under the agreement, the island hospitals, which have had longstanding collaborations with the MGH, would have an opportunity to strengthen and expand these relationships and enhance clinical services to their patients. A shared electronic medical record, which would be possible through such an affiliation, would foster timely communications among the caregivers on the islands and in Boston and be especially important for those patients who require care and services not available at the island facilities. Mason Boemer described the key clinical and financial considerations and said that the island hospitals would maintain their own boards of trustees, but would include a 20 percent representation from the MGH/Partners.

The final presentation was from Jack W. Szostak, PhD, of the MGH Department of Molecular Biology and a co-recipient of the 2006 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. In his talk, "Science Talk: The Origins of Life," Szostak described how he and his team are using simple models to understand how the first cells may have formed, grown and evolved.