Alex Cusson, Administrative Manager at the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard, was nominated for the March 2018 Suggestion of the Month in recognition of a comment he submitted via Isuggest, a platform which aims to implement changes to operational processes across Massachussets General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Partners HealthCare based on employee suggestions. Cusson’s proposal, regarding changes to the invoice submission process to Accounts Payable, responds to cases in which an invoice cannot be directly routed to AP. It aims to streamline the invoice submission process and cut down on the amount of time end users and Client Services spend dealing with submissions on a case-by-case basis. Thanks to the feedback provided by Cusson, Partners Supply Chain Management was able to activate an electronic system where invoices can be submitted directly via email.

Cusson’s suggestion will be highlighted at Research Management meetings taking place at MGH throughout the month, and was selected by the Administrative and Business Owners of Isuggest. His suggestion is a great example of the ultimate goal of the Isuggest program: to reduce the administrative burden and improve the organizational efficiency for the research enterprise at Partners organizations. Dr. Harry Orf, VP for Research, MGH and Gary Smith, Sr. Administrative Director for Research, MGH, hope Cusson’s idea will serve as an example to the research community, and will encourage employees to continue making suggestions to improve the research community and further facilitate groundbreaking innovations and discoveries.