Mongan, Lee: Investments Lead to Efficiency, Savings
With the health care industry facing an increasing demand for proof of quality through public reporting, pay-for-performance contracts and a national “mandate for change,” Partners Health-Care is meeting the challenge with Signature Initiatives as the system moves into its second decade.
“In our first decade as Partners HealthCare, we built the structure of our system in terms of budgets and administration. Moving forward in our second decade, we need to create a uniform quality framework across our system,” President and CEO James J. Mongan, MD said during BWH Grand Rounds in June. Mongan and PCHI President Thomas H. Lee, MD reported on year one of the Signature Initiatives at the Grand Rounds sponsored by the BWH Physicians' Council.
Signature Initiatives will build on the pre-existing efforts such as JCAHO and length of stay efforts at BWH, as well as quality reports and pharmacy and disease management throughout the Partners system.
“This is a five-to-10 year project that will transform the way we provide care,” Mongan said. “It's about how to deliver the best quality of care most efficiently.”
The five Signature Initiatives are:
1. Investing in quality and utilization infrastructure;
2. Enhancing patient safety;
3. Enhancing uniform high quality;
4. Expanding disease management programs; and
5. Improving cost effectiveness.
For year one, Mongan and Lee pointed to Partners' investment in information systems and goals related to new technology, such as computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and electronic medical records. Also, year one of Signature Initiatives saw electronic reporting of errors deployed at BWH along with the roll out of “smart” IV pumps.
“By the end of the decade, our systems will set the national standard and our integrated systems have the potential to become a national model,” Lee said.