Baystate Health’s Peter Banko Elected Trustee of Massachusetts Health & Hospital Assoc.

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health President and CEO Peter Banko was elected to the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Assoc. (MHA) board of trustees on Jan. 30. MHA serves as the united voice for the Commonwealth’s hospitals, health systems, and healthcare providers.

“It is our honor to welcome Peter to the MHA board at a critical time for the Commonwealth’s healthcare system,” MHA President and CEO Steve Walsh said. “He brings a highly valuable national healthcare perspective to our mission, as well as a strong vision for the future of care delivery and patient access. We know he will bring the same compassion and ingenuity to MHA as he does to the Western New England region.”

As part of the MHA board, Banko will help support the recovery of local hospitals and health systems, all of which have absorbed a relentless series of pressures dating back to the beginning of the pandemic. The board will advocate with a united front to ease the capacity pressures, workforce shortages, and administrative burdens that are now challenging timely patient care across the Commonwealth, and to restore financial stability to the state’s most important sector.

In the coming year, MHA and its board will also build upon Massachusetts’ world-renowned legacy for healthcare innovation. Its priorities will include advancing state-of-the-art care outside the hospital, reimagining what an empowered healthcare profession looks like, and closing patient-care disparities in new and creative ways.

“We are blessed to have a health association that creates a bridge for collaboration and partnership amongst hospitals and health system leaders across Massachusetts,” Banko said. “We are individually and collectively connected through our mission-driven care, and I look forward to working together to advocate for health and healthcare in New England and to find opportunities to advance care for our neighbors and caregivers in Western Massachusetts.”