Printer Friendly 

 E-mail this Page 

Home > People, Facilities & Services

• 
• 
• 

People, Facilities & Services

The Massachusetts General Hospital is known around the world as a premier academic teaching and research hospital with distinguished physicians and research scientists, a highly skilled nursing staff, a dedicated workforce, and state-of-the-art technology and facilities. Since the founding of its charter in 1811, the MGH has focused on building and maintaining the best possible structure for delivering quality care – both in terms of its physical facilities as well as its staff and technical capabilities. Below is a snapshot of some highlights of the hospital’s people, facilities, research and services.

People

The MGH takes pride in hiring the best and brightest and investing in their professional development. The hospital is one of the largest private employers in Boston, with 21,000 employees in 2007. MGH staff includes 4,002 registered nurses; 192 primary care physicians; 1,938 specialists; and 2,690 clinical staff members. There are more than 2,100 research scientists and fellows. In addition, nearly 3,000 allied health workers and over 9,600 employees in other roles support the hospital’s daily operations.

Honors for Physicians, Nurses, and Research Scientists

As of 2007, 28 MGH physicians are members of the Institute of Medicine and six MGH research scientists are members of the National Academy of Sciences. Other recent honors include the following:

Jack W. Szostak, PhD, of the MGH Department of Molecular Biology, was named as a co-recipient of the 2006 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. Presented by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, the Lasker Awards are regarded as the American version of the Nobel Prize. Szostak is the most recent MGH recipient of the Lasker Award.

Emery Brown, MD, PhD, of MGH Anesthesia and Critical Care, recently received the National Institutes of Health’s Pioneer Award that supports scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering and transforming approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research.

Daniel Haber, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Cancer Center, was named a Patient-Oriented Researcher by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to support his studies examining how genetic mutations that lead to the development of cancer may also make tumors susceptible to treatment with particular drugs, an approach known as targeted therapy.

Deborah Washington, RN, PhDc, director of Diversity for MGH Patient Care Services, was named Nursing Spectrum magazine's National Nurse of the Year in the Advancing and Leading the Profession category in 2007, and Dorothy A. Jones, EdD, RN, FAAN, director of the Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research, was selected as a New England regional winner of the 2007 Nursing Spectrum Excellence Awards in the "Teaching" category.

Jeanette Ives Erickson, RN, MS, senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nurse, and Diane Carroll, APRN, PhD, nurse researcher, were selected as American Academy of Nursing inductees.

Two MGH researchers were named to the 2005 Scientific American 50, the magazine's annual list of outstanding leaders in science and technology: Zheng-Yi Chen, PhD, of the MGH Neurology Service, and Bradley Hyman, MD, PhD, director of the Alzheimer's Unit.

MGH: A Great Place to Work Receives Honors

With its comprehensive benefits for a diverse workforce, MGH has been recognized among the nation’s top employers.

In 2006, the National Business Group on Health recognized MGH as a one of the nation’s top 30 employers promoting a healthy lifestyle for its employees. The organization awarded MGH’s Be Fit program, a hospital initiative that makes healthy nutrition and exercise a workplace priority, the Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles Award in the Silver category. The Be Fit program also was lauded by the international Alliance for Work-Life Progress with its Work-Life Innovation Excellence Award, and the American Heart Association recognized MGH with its Fit Friendly Award – one of just two given to Boston-area hospitals.

In 2006 and 2007, MGH was honored as a top employer by Working Mother magazine and the AARP. Because of the many benefits and services MGH offers to support its working mothers, the hospital was recognized as one of the top 100 U.S. companies honored by Working Mother magazine for mothers in the workplace. MGH also was recognized as the 10th best workplace in the United States by the AARP for workers over the age of 50. In selecting the hospital, the AARP highlighted a variety of benefits MGH offers that makes it possible for employees to continue working beyond the traditional retirement age of 65. Also in 2007, The Scientist, a magazine for life science professionals, honored the MGH as the Best Place to Work in Academia in the United States.

Facilities

The MGH campus includes 25 buildings in downtown Boston as well as six outpatient care and seven research facilities off campus. Taken together, these comprise the largest teaching and research hospital for Harvard Medical School.

Several structures on the MGH campus embody the collaborative approach to science and medicine at the hospital. The Richard B. Simches Research Center houses 25 percent of the hospital’s total research space while incorporating four thematic research centers to foster new and exciting collaborations among scientists from different disciplines. In the same way, the Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care incorporates a number of outpatient services under one roof cultivating clinical collaboration and access to multiple disciplines.

Finally, as a world-renowned research institution, the MGH has 22.5 acres of research labs, with more than 700,000 square feet of bench-research space on three campuses. The MGH has annual research funding of more than $528.6 million, making it the largest hospital-based research program in the United States.

Technology

While the MGH may be the oldest and largest hospital in the New England area, it is also a national leader in developing and refining information technology for patient records, research, education and clinical care – from the operating room to patient rooms. A recent survey by the American Hospital Association found that MGH has the highest number of technologies as compared to other teaching hospitals in the Boston area with 17 of 18 possible technologies available at MGH – including key services and specialized inpatient and outpatient services, as well as diagnostic and therapeutic imaging services such as proton beam therapy at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center.

Many of the MGH’s new technologies are intended to enhance patient safety and prevent errors. MGH implemented a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, which enables physicians to send their orders over a computer network to the medical staff or departments such as Pharmacy or Radiology. CPOE has been found to reduce delays and errors in patient care. In its ambulatory care facilities, MGH also has implemented an electronic medical record system to improve the documentation, tracking and coordination of care over time.

Regularly investing resources in a variety of equipment to ensure patient safety and prevent errors, the hospital has installed a number of helpful technologies. For example, in 2005, MGH implemented “smart pumps,” which aid in the administration of many intravenous agents. In 2006, bed exit alarms that are linked to the nurse call system were installed, and most recently in 2007, ceiling lifts, which help to safely lift and maneuver patients were implemented at MGH.

Services-Breadth and Depth

The MGH offers sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic care in virtually every specialty and subspecialty of medicine and surgery. The Heart Center, the Cancer Center, orthopaedics, obstetrics and digestive specialties are the largest of its 18 clinical services. Each year, the MGH provides services for nearly 50,000 admissions. Its emergency and ambulatory care facilities handle about 1.3 million visits. The MGH also sponsors graduate medical education (GME) in 17 of those core specialties, including Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Psychiatry, Dermatology, Radiology, Pathology, Anesthesiology, the Neurosciences and more than 90 subspecialties.

MGH services have been recognized in many ways for its excellence. Most recently:

In 2003, the American Nursing Association awarded its highest honor for nursing excellence – Magnet Nursing Services Recognition – to MGH, making it the first Magnet hospital in Massachusetts. MGH is the 83rd hospital to receive the Magnet designation; as of early 2008, only five percent of all hospitals in the United States have earned this honor.

In 2007, the Leapfrog Group – a national hospital quality rating organization – designated MGH a “Top Hospital” for patient safety and health care quality practices based on a survey of 1,285 hospitals around the country.

U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks MGH among the nation’s top hospitals. In 2007, MGH ranked 5th among the 18 hospitals on the list. MGH was also among the top 10 hospitals in the country in 11 specialties: psychiatry, cancer, cardiology, heart and heart surgery, endocrinology, digestive disorders, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery, kidney disease, orthopaedics, respiratory disease and rheumatology. MGH Psychiatry ranked first for the twelfth consecutive year.

 

« Previous Page