Cambridge Health Alliance Leader To Head RI Hospitals

WBUR's Martha Bebinger reports:

The CEO of Cambridge Health Alliance, which includes Cambridge Hospital, is leaving.

Dennis Keefe will run a three-hospital network in Rhode Island anchored by Women and Infants Hospital. CHA's board chair thanks Keefe for steering the Cambridge network through "extremely challenging time." Keefe says it's a good time for change for him personally and for Cambridge Health Alliance, one of the state's largest safety net hospital systems.

From Dennis Keefe's message to staff:

I did not go looking for this new opportunity and frankly hadn’t given a lot of thought to making any change. But the more the discussions progressed, the more it all began making sense. I will miss all of you but I leave knowing that the institution is in good hands and that it is on a course that I believe will make history as CHA becomes the centerpiece of health care payment reform and the initiatives to establish the patient-centered medical home and Accountable Care Organization.

I’d like to think that I left a stamp on this institution but in reality, CHA left more of an impression on me and I will carry its sense of pride and mission and commitment with me wherever I go.