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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, Mass General 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 21,450 employees in 2009. MGH staff includes about 4,000 registered nurses; 200 primary care physicians; and 2,600 specialists. There are more than 2,300 research scientists and fellows. In addition, there are more than 3,800 allied health workers and over 13,500 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:

Gary Ruvkun, PhD, of the MGH Department of Molecular Biology, was one of three co-recipients of the 2008 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. Presented by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, the Lasker Awards are often considered the American version of the Nobel Prize, and many Lasker recipients have gone on to win the Nobel. Ruvkun and his colleagues were honored for their discovery that tiny molecules of RNA can control the activity of critical genes in animals and plants. Jack W. Szostak, PhD, of the MGH Department of Molecular Biology, was named as a co-recipient of the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2006.

The discovery of four potential new Alzheimer's disease genes by Rudolph Tanzi, PhD, director of the MGH-MIND Genetics and Aging Research Unit, and Lars Bertram, PhD, of MGH-MIND, was named to Time Magazine’s list of the "Top Ten Medical Breakthroughs of 2008." The better understanding of how these and other genes may increase the risk of developing the disease may lead to the development of future therapies.

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 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, 2007 and 2008, MGH received top employer honors from 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 one of the Top 50 Workplaces for People over 50 by AARP. 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 and 2008, The Scientist, a magazine for life science professionals, honored the MGH as the Best Place to Work in Academia in the United States.

MGH’s Be Fit program, a hospital initiative that makes healthy nutrition and exercise a workplace priority, has been lauded by the international Alliance for Work-Life Progress with its Work-Life Innovation Excellence Award, and the American Heart Association recently recognized MGH in 2008 with its Start! Fit Friendly Award in the gold category for the hospital's work promoting healthy eating, a wellness culture and activities that improve physical activity among employees. 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 with the Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles Award in the Silver category. 

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. In 2009, the Ragon Institute was established with the generous support from the Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Foundation, creating a model of scientific collaboration that links the clinical, translational and basic science expertise at MGH, MIT, Harvard and the Broad Institute to tackle the greatest global health challenges related to infectious disease research.

Finally, as a world-renowned research institution, Mass General has 22.5 acres of research labs, with more than 700,000 square feet of bench-research space on three campuses. 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 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.

Regularly investing resources in a variety of equipment and systems to ensure patient safety and prevent errors, the hospital has implemented a number of helpful technologies. One initiative, that has just started its implementation phase, is a new hospitalwide electronic medication administration system intended to enhance patient medication safety and prevent medication-related adverse events by electronically linking the systems clinicians use to order, dispense and administer medications. Called the Electronic Medication Administration Process for Patient Safety (EMAPPS), the system incorporates the scanning of bar-coded medications, patient wristbands and clinician ID badges.

The hospital also has installed “smart pumps,” which aid in the administration of many intravenous agents, and in 2007, ceiling lifts, which help to safely lift and maneuver patients were implemented at MGH. Recently, MGH Radiology, implemented the Duplicate Exam notification feature in its Radiology Order Entry System across Radiology areas. This new feature alerts referring physicians if a similar imaging test or procedure already has been performed recently on the patient within the Partners network.

Services-Breadth and Depth

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, MGH provides services for nearly 50,000 admissions. Its emergency and ambulatory care facilities handle about 1.3 million visits. MGH also sponsors graduate medical education 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:

On April 15, 2008 MGH received official notification that it had been re-designated as a Magnet hospital for another four years by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Magnet recognition is the ANCC's highest honor for nursing excellence and has been awarded to fewer than five percent of hospitals nationwide. In 2003, MGH had the distinct honor of being designated the first hospital in Massachusetts to be awarded Magnet Nursing Services Recognition by the ANCC.

U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks MGH among the nation’s top hospitals. In 2008, MGH ranked 5th among the 19 hospitals on the list. MGH was also among the top 10 hospitals in the country in 11 specialties: psychiatry, cancer, digestive disorders, endocrinology, geriatrics, heart and heart surgery, kidney, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopaedics, respiratory disorders and rheumatology. MGH Psychiatry ranked first for the 13th consecutive year.

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. Also in 2007, MGH was honored with the Betsy Lehman Patient Safety Recognition Award in acknowledgement of its leadership and innovation in patient safety, public awareness, education and promotion of systems-based solutions through the use of best practices for its comprehensive hospitalwide hand hygiene compliance program.

 

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