Nearly six months into his role as Partners HealthCare (PHS) President and CEO, James Mongan, MD, has been visiting hospitals to promote his goals and objectives in an era of renewed health care challenges presented by third party payers, government regulations and declining reimbursements. Mongan has focused attention on the value-added attributes of Partners HealthCare.
Most recently, he presented his “Perspectives on Partners: Value Added to Cost and Quality” at the April 30 Quarterly Meeting of the Medical Staff, which was jointly sponsored by the Medical Staff Organization and Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization.
“Partners continues to have a positive impact on the overall economy of the New England Region,” he said as he explained that PHS employs 33,000 people, 18,000 of whom are direct caregivers and 5,000 of whom are primarily involved in medical research. As someone who joined the MGH as its president a year after BWH and MGH came together to form PHS, Mongan has seen the system become the choice for 1.3 million total patients each year. With the renowned teachingprograms at BWH, MGH and other members, Partners is the recipient of $30 million in out-of-state federal funding to support Partners’ training programs.
“It’s important to have the opportunity to step back and look at where we have been, where we are, and where we are going,” Mongan explained to the group of physicians and researchers, varying in years of service and expertise. “Partners is an integrated academic health system that adds value to our patients and community,” he emphasized.
Although Mongan sees controlling health care costs as the biggest challenge in the next five to seven years, his outlook remains positive and realistic.
“Massachusetts hospitals are more efficient than typically reported when we are measured on an apples-to-apples basis,” said Mongan. He explained that costs are being driven more by utilization than price, proposing continued attention to unit costs—length of stay, FTE management, supply cost management and space utilization.
“The highest possible patient outcomes, along with the highest patient satisfaction come about when you add optimal quality and effective and efficient utilization to equal a value-added service,” said Mongan.
Mongan is proposing five signature initiatives focusing on quality, utilization, and cost to distinguish Partners and to lessen the negative financial circumstances facing medical centers. They include:
• investing in a sound and consistent quality and utilization infrastructure;
• enhancing patient safety by reducing medication errors system-wide;
• enhancing uniform high quality by measuring performance to benchmark for select inpatient and outpatient conditions;
• expanding disease management programs by supporting activities for certain patients with chronic illnesses; and
• improving cost effectiveness through managing utilization trends and analysis of variance.
Mongan is the third leader of Partners since it was established in 1994. He follows Samuel O. Thier, MD and the late Richard Nesson, MD.