Leadership meeting outlines research, mission, construction and budget

Managers and supervisors gathered in the O'Keeffe Auditorium Oct. 31 for a leadership meeting highlighting leading-edge research from Emery N. Brown, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Neuroscience Statistics Research Laboratory and member of Anesthesia and Critical Care; the revised MGH mission statement and new credo and boundary statements; campus construction updates; and the FY '08 budget.

Brown gave an overview of the groundbreaking research he and his MGH team of investigators have conducted over the past five years, studying how anesthetic drugs induce the behavioral states characteristic of general anesthesia. Using combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography, Brown and his team are aiming to identify the time course and specific sites in the human brain at which anesthetic drugs act to induce loss of consciousness. With continued research, the investigators hope to enhance patient care related to the use of general anesthesia, including improving the monitoring of brain states under anesthesia; designing safer, site-specific anesthetic drugs; reducing general anesthesia-related morbidity and mortality; and creating new clinical and basic research opportunities in anesthesia.

Peter L. Slavin, MD, MGH president, introduced a revised MGH mission statement that reflects the hospital's commitment to patients and their families, quality and safety, community health, research, and education. He also presented new boundary statements, which set forth a series of declarations that MGH employees — as part of the larger MGH community in service to the mission — agree to follow. The signing of the comprehensive statement will be incorporated into new employee orientation, credentialing and annual reviews.

Providing construction updates were Denise Palumbo, RN, MSN, executive director of Radiology and director of Operations for the Building for the Third Century (B3C); Bonnie Michelman, director of MGH Police, Security and Outside Services; and David Hanitchak, director of MGH Planning and Construction and Partners Real Estate project executive. Palumbo provided updates on construction projects that have taken place on the MGH campus in preparation for the demolitions of the Clinics, Tilton and Vincent Burnham Kennedy buildings and construction of the B3C. Among the major project milestones accomplished since the summer are the completion of the MGH/Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary connector, nonemergent ambulance and patient discharge location changes, and pedestrian and traffic route changes.

Sally Mason Boemer, vice president for MGH Finance, provided a summary of the FY '08 budget, explaining that strong payment rates and volume growth facilitated the investment in new programs, a significant increase in full-time employees and a restored operating margin. She reported that going forward, budget expectations will need to be aligned with lower volume growth rates, lower rate increases from contracted payors, and government payment rates that are just keeping pace with medical inflation and costs of sustaining competitive wages for a growing workforce. Mason Boemer concluded by saying that this year's budget allows the MGH to implement and grow several strategic initiatives such as clinical business development, process improvement, quality and safety, and research.