June 27, 2008

Adopting process improvement across the MGH

A process can simply be described as a series of steps and decisions involved in accomplishing a goal. At the workplace, most daily administrative and operational activities involve a process — in fact, a lot of processes.

Process improvement, an important MGH initiative, is the identification, analysis and improvement of existing processes to enhance the way tasks are done to improve quality and safety, enhance patient satisfaction and reduce waste. Intended to advance the ongoing work in quality and safety, service and efficiency at the hospital, process improvement already has been conducted in more than 20 areas with many valuable benefits reaped and lessons learned.

Recently, process improvement has been further developed at the MGH under the leadership of Dan Ginsburg, MGPO president and chief operating officer and MGH/MGPO senior vice president for Cancer and Women's Programs; with Gregg Meyer, MD, senior vice president for the MGH/MGPO Center for Quality and Safety (CQS); Mary Cramer, director of the Process Improvement Program; and the Process Improvement Champions Group. The champions group, comprising Elizabeth Mort, MD, vice president for CQS and MGH associate chief medical officer; Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, MS, FAAN, senior vice president for Patient Care and chief nurse; Jean Elrick, MD, senior vice president for Administration; Sally Mason Boemer, senior vice president for Finance; and Nancy Gagliano, MD, vice president of Practice Improvement; works to ensure the effective design and implementation of the process improvement program across the hospital.

Facilitating improvements: From left, standing, Strauss, Rao, Chaudhary, Cramer and Green. From left, seated, Lambert, Scheer and Albano.

To help make process improvement a way of life at the MGH, GE Healthcare Performance Solutions has been hired to work with eight MGH staff members — known as process improvement facilitators — engaging them in classroom instruction and hands-on training to teach them the best ways to conduct a successful process improvement project at the hospital. Members of this group are Arjun Rao, Ken Scheer and Suzanne Sokal from CQS; Dan Kerls from Patient Care Services; Sanjay Chaudhary and Joan Strauss from Practice Improvement; Joe Albano from Finance; and Nicole Green from the Professional Billing Office. Recently, the team initiated a project to improve the flow of inpatients in the electrophysiology lab. The outcome of their project will be shared in an upcoming issue of MGH Hotline.

As the facilitators complete their training, they will transfer their skills and knowledge to others to further promote process improvement throughout the hospital. For more information, contact Cramer at mcramer@partners.org.