Town Meeting- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Town Meeting- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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June 30, 2000
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In This Issue:
Bright Future for Project RISE Grads
Town Meeting
July Calendar
Partners International Program wins MA Award
“An extraordinary commitment”
At the June 20 Town Meeting, the audience of BWH employees, staff, and volunteers engaged President Jeffrey Otten, Chief Medical Officer Anthony Whittemore, MD, and Chief Operating Officer Matthew Van Vranken in a dialogue on current topics at the hospital. The following are excerpts from that discussion: Q: I work in Research, and we rely heavily on Federal Express to ship and receive our samples in a timely manner. When will the problem with Federal Express be resolved? A: Mary Gomperts, director of Materials Management: Initially, after giving our business to UPS, Federal Express changed our payment terms from net 31 to net 7 days. We’re not reimbursed that quickly, and it was a flow of money problem. Last week, I met with Nancy Hoffman, the controller of Partners, and we agreed with FedEx to pay them in 15 days. Unfortunately, most of the packages dropped off in the FedEx box to be sent don’t have charging information on them, and that’s contributing along with the payment changes to the problem. Q: Patients complain that they are being stuck three, four, and five times a day. Too many individuals issue orders, and the issuance of orders through computers makes it difficult to consolidate. Is it possible to find ways to consolidate and ration the bloodwork to reduce the number of times we stick patients? A: Anthony Whittemore: I suspect that reflects the high acuity and turnover of our patient population. I think the house staff who are responsible for most of those orders are being put through the ringer trying to deliver quality care, and as they sit down and develop a plan for a patient, their initial diagnosis leads them to a certain number of tests. As the day wears on, they need more, and so on. But we should still look at ways to consolidate the orders so that doesn’t happen. A first pass should be aimed at the Program Directors and Resident Educators to communicate this concern to the housestaff. Q: We now have a brand-new MS center that is a joint venture of sorts with MGH and Partners. Are other departments or services eyeing such cooperative arrangements? A: Matt Van Vranken: BWH and MGH have a number of clinical and programmatic cooperative arrangements. We have many joint residency programs, and as those begin to mature, we’re finding ways to link our clinical enterprises programmatically. The MS program is a great opportunity for BWH—we’ve created a new clinical setting at 333 Longwood. I think we could use Bulletin or other sources to help people understand that we truly are acting as partners to help deliver care across BWH and MGH. A: Jeff Otten: Also, we’re looking at developing 140,000 square feet of space at the Ledge site behind the Calumet Market at Brigham Circle, including 100,000 square feet that will be devoted to BWH and Partners, either administrative or dry research space. There will be restaurants, a supermarket, a pharmacy, and other things that will support Longwood and our collaborations as well as the neighborhood. Q: How can a 20 percent parking increase be justified when most employees have a 4 percent salary increase? A: Art Mombourquette: I’ve been asked before, “Patients have been calling in and canceling appointments because there are no parking spaces. Is there anything being done about this?” The parking situation is extremely difficult, and made worse by the fact that Harvard Institute of Medicine is building a new building and is moving everyone out of the subground garage in the current facility. That means that as of July 1, 242 parking spaces no longer belong to us. At the same time, in April of this year, the owner of the Landsdowne street garage asked us to vacate. That’s 235 more lost spaces. I tell you this to put the problem in context. We also live in a densely populated neighborhood that wants to be able to get to and from their homes. We would very much like to encourage people to not bring their cars to the hospital. As recently published in Bulletin, we’re increasing the subsidy in MBTA passes from what had been 9-22 percent depending on the zone, to a flat subsidy of 45 percent. We are raising the costs of the parking spaces. We only own 240 parking spaces, and every other space we lease, so we are largely at the mercy of the market. We haven’t raised the offsite parking rates, and we want to encourage people to park there. The onsite raise will be dramatically offset, however, by instituting a pre-tax deduction that will change tax and FICA withholdings, and will let employees take home more money, despite the fact that we’re raising parking fees. It accomplishes a better revenue stream for us, and it softens the burden of parking for employees. I have also had several questions about shuttle services, and we’re willing to look at suggestions for that. Lastly, this isn’t a BWH problem; it’s a city of Boston and Longwood problem.