The recent decision by Partners Healthcare to rebrand their organization as “Mass General Brigham” is clear evidence that our eastern Massachusetts healthcare system is mired in old, traditional ways that have been central to why we have a crisis in healthcare delivery today. It is a colossal waste of resources that could be used to improve and accomplish much needed actual healthcare delivery and it shows the fundamental weakness of an organization trapped by egos, self-interest, and priorities from the past. The clear message is that the organization is focusing on its own importance and on its inpatient hospital structure as it’s first priority. Nowadays, healthcare needs to be about putting our patients’ and communities’ true needs first and providing truly improved value, defined as better quality for reduced cost. We must invest first and foremost in measures that are most impactful for the positive health of our population. In order to do so, care must move more and more to the outpatient setting and primary care providers are increasingly important to coordinate that care. “Mass General Brigham” says none of that.
I don’t think that the leaders at Partners appreciate what they already have. Partners is a name that suggests two venerable, highly regarded, excellent-quality institutions and their associated community hospital and physician network partnering jointly with patients and each other to meet public healthcare needs in the best possible way. Instead, it is now clear that the organization was focused from the beginning on how the two principle hospitals could try to work together and the move to change names suggests ongoing serious core difficulties in doing so. Rather than prioritizing investment in local community health program development, the organization is spending lavishly to enhance its reputation as a way to soothe egos, preserve the union, and try to find a way to work better together internally. The business model must be banking on out of area draw based on reputation for in-hospital care to provide more business and higher revenues that are not constrained by local insurance contracts and state regulation. Our regional healthcare system just cannot continue to afford such an approach.
It is probably too late to adjust the course of such a big behemoth organization. But I would suggest at least an additional tagline to the new name: “Mass General Brigham – Your Partners in Health”, and, more importantly, the implied greater emphasis on patient- centered, high-value care for our local population within the organization.aq99