Career Pulse

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health announced three leadership appointments for its regional community hospitals.

Effective July 1, Steven Bradley will succeed Chuck Gijanto as president of Baystate Franklin Medical Center and the Baystate Northern Region. And effective immediately, Dennis Chalke has been named senior vice president of Community Hospitals for Baystate Health, an expansion of his current role as chief financial officer and treasurer, in which he will continue.

Dr. M. Shafeeq Ahmed will continue in his role as chief operating officer and chief medical officer for Baystate Mary Lane Hospital, and will also serve as acting president of Baystate Mary Lane Hospital after Gijanto ends his tenure on July 1. Additional leadership appointments for the Baystate Eastern Region will be made at a later date, with Ahmed continuing to serve in a senior leadership role.

“We’re pleased to share these leadership decisions, which are important ones for Baystate Health,” said Dr. Mark Keroack, the organization’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, who will assume the title of Baystate Health president and CEO on July 1. “One of our success factors for the very near future will be our ability to optimize the use of all our facilities, allowing patients to remain closer to home for more routine treatment and seek more complex care at our academic medical center in Springfield. This model brings us closer to Baystate’s stated vision of an integrated system of care. Our future will be one of integration — of team.”

Bradley has served for 14 years as Baystate Health’s vice president for Government and Community Relations and Public Affairs. He led the team that garnered state approval for Baystate Medical Center’s $300 million Hospital of the Future project, and more recently helped facilitate a resolution to a lengthy labor dispute at Baystate Franklin Medical Center.

“It is my honor to accept the leadership of this important and beloved community resource. I thank Chuck Gijanto for his leadership and his commitment, and I look forward to further strengthening Baystate’s bond with the Franklin County community,” said Bradley.

Prior to joining Baystate Health, Bradley served as regional director for what was then known as the Mass. Department of Mental Retardation, where he carried administrative, financial, and regulatory responsibilities and provided leadership to 6,000 direct and contract employees serving thousands of patients and families in the region.

Bradley also served as chief of staff to state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst), and has grown to know Franklin County well in that role and in his subsequent positions. He has served as selectman in the town of Pelham, as board president for the Massachusetts Public Health Assoc., and is past chair of the board of trustees for Springfield Technical Community College and the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, Legislative Affairs Committee.

Chalke currently serves as chief financial officer and treasurer for Baystate Health, and will continue in that role in addition to his new position as senior vice president of Community Hospitals. In his expanded role, he will oversee the presidents of Baystate’s community hospitals and regions. He has more than 26 years of healthcare experience, having joined Baystate in 1988. Chalke holds an MBA from UMass Amherst and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Ithaca College.

At Baystate Mary Lane Hospital (BMLH), Ahmed’s responsibilities include leadership for inpatient and outpatient practice operations, hospital medical-staff oversight, provider recruitment, quality and patient-satisfaction program oversight, leadership development, strategic planning, and financial stewardship. He was recently named one of “100 Hospital and Health System Chief Medical Officers to Know” by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Prior to his arrival at BMLH, Ahmed had served as president of the medical staff, chief of ob/gyn and a member of the board of directors at the Naval Hospital – Cherry Point in North Carolina. Ahmed is also a member of the Baystate Medical Practices board of directors, and he has served as vice president of the BMLH medical staff. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Boston University and received his doctorate in medicine from Boston University School of Medicine, and completed his ob/gyn residency training through Tufts University at Baystate Medical Center.

GREENFIELD — Kelli Barry has joined Baystate Franklin Medical Center as a philanthropy officer with the Baystate Health Foundation. She brings a variety of fund-raising experiences to her new role, most recently as the vice president of Development for Easter Seals Massachusetts, where she oversaw special events, foundation grants, and giving campaigns.

Barry spent 14 years with the American Cancer Society (ACS), including as the national director for Mission Integration for Relay For Life. During that time, she developed a comprehensive plan to integrate the ACS mission priorities of health promotions, quality of life, and research, and to foster survivor/caregiver engagement through Relay For Life.

Later, as ACS vice president of Income Development for Massachusetts, New England Division, Barry managed a statewide fund-raising team, oversaw budget development and management, and promoted volunteer and constituent engagement. In 2012, she was awarded the Massachusetts Unsung Heroine Award by the Mass. Commission on the Status of Women for her work with the American Cancer Society.

“Making the move to Baystate Health and Baystate Franklin Medical Center is a personal cause for me,” said Barry. “My family members have received excellent care within our practices and hospitals, and I am dedicated to promoting strong community-based healthcare in Western Mass.”

A graduate of St. Anselm College with a bachelor’s degree in political science, Barry earned her master’s degree in public administration from American International College in Springfield.

HOLYOKE — Kathy Bowler, executive director of the Holyoke Council on Aging, was recently honored with the Loomis Communities Elvira Whiting Ball Award for outstanding service to older adults.

More than 150 people celebrated with Bowler, and the reception raised $49,390 in support of the nursing centers at Loomis House in Holyoke and Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing in Springfield, which provide award-winning person-centered care to long-term residents, as well as physical-, speech-, and occupational-therapy programs that help people recover from illness or surgery and return to their homes more quickly.

A lifelong resident of Holyoke, Bowler has been executive director of the Holyoke Council on Aging for 26 years. Currently 2,400 individuals are registered with the Senior Center and participate in programs that include transportation, social services, daily meals, tax preparation, tax work-off, fitness classes, health education, art and computer literacy, cultural events, and Learning in Later Life, all supported by an extensive volunteer program.

Loomis Communities provides continuing care, specialized care, and health and wellness resources on four campuses: Applewood in Amherst, Loomis House in Holyoke, Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing in Springfield, and Loomis Village in South Hadley.

SPRINGFIELD — Dr. Lewis Cohen of the Psychiatric Consultation Service at Baystate Medical Center has been chosen from among a highly competitive roster of nominations to receive the prestigious 2014 Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award.

The highest honor bestowed annually by the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (APM), the award recognizes outstanding achievement across an entire career in psychosomatic medicine in training, research, clinical practice, and leadership.

“The competition was quite fierce this year; however, the committee heavily endorsed your candidacy and felt that you far outshone your competition,” wrote Dr. Elisabeth Kunkel, chair of the APM’s fellowship and awards committee, in a letter to Cohen.

Added Dr. Benjamin Liptztin, chair of the Department of Psychiatry for Baystate Health, “this is a great honor for Dr. Cohen, as well as for Baystate. It is especially fitting since he trained and worked with Dr. Hackett.”

Cohen, who also serves as a professor of Psychiatry for Tufts University School of Medicine — for which Baystate Medical Center serves as the Western Campus — is director of Baystate’s Renal Palliative Care Initiative. He has written numerous journal articles on dialysis, palliative care, and end-of-life issues, and is also the author of the book No Good Deed: A Story of Medicine, Murder Accusations and the Debate Over How We Die.

He is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rockefeller Scholars Bellagio Residency Award, a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, and the Tufts University School of Medicine Distinguished Faculty Award.

The Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award was established in 1988 to honor Dr. Thomas Hackett Jr., professor and chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and president of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.

A long-time leader in the field of consultation-liaison psychiatry, he died of a heart attack at age 59, two months after he took office as president of APM. The first Hackett award was presented in 1989, and in 2009, the award was renamed to include his wife, Eleanor, who passed away of leukemia in April 2009. She had presented the award at the annual meeting almost every year since its inception.

The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine represents psychiatrists dedicated to the advancement of medical science, education, and healthcare for people with simultaneous psychiatric and general medical conditions, and provides national and international leadership in furthering those goals.

HOLYOKE — Sandra Picard has been appointed director of care transitions at Holyoke Medical Center. In this position, she will lead the Case Management Department as well as being directly involved with projects and initiatives related to patient navigation and care coordination.

Previously an employee of Holyoke Medical Center as a critical-care manager of  ICU, CCU, PCU, and S1, Picard returns to the hospital after serving as director of Case Management at Noble Hospital in Westfield and director of Nursing Infomatics at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Ga. While at St. Francis, she was instrumental in creating, implementing, and teaching a medication bar-coding system for the 350-bed trauma hospital.

In addition to her RN degree, Picard holds a bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration from Elms College and an MBA with a minor in technology management from the University of Phoenix.

WESTFIELD — Noble Hospital has hired Dr. Mehdi Pajouh as chief of Cardiology. Under the leadership of Pajouh, the hospital will expand internal cardiology services so that patients can receive expert cardiac care without having to leave the hospital.

“As the new director, I’m hoping to improve not only the quality but also the quantity of services we are offering right now, finding coverage that is now missing on weekends and holidays,” he said. “Our end goal is to provide 24/7  cardiac care to our community.”

Pajouh spent 11 years as a cardiologist with Westfield Cardiology, where he frequently collaborated with Noble Hospital. He says that folding his practice into the Noble Health Network will provide his patients with increased proximity, greater convenience, and more services.

“Being in the hospital will improve and expedite the cardiac care that we are giving to our patients,” he said. “We are currently in talks with area cardiologists and hospitals to fill existing gaps and increase the number of procedures that we will be able to perform, including pacemaker, defibrillator, and electrophysiology [for patients with arrhythmias].”

Pajouh finished his residency and fellowship at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland and was partially trained at Cleveland Clinic. He is board-certified in general cardiology, nuclear cardiology, echocardiography, and internal medicine.

SPRINGFIELD — Loomis Communities has announced the appointment of Gabrielle Thomes as director of Social Services at the nursing center at Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing.

In this role, she will plan and implement social services and help individuals and their families find the correct level they need for care and recovery or, when necessary, hospice. Thomes is a licensed social worker who previously worked at Wingate at East Longmeadow.

The Loomis Communities provides continuing care, specialized care, and health-wellness resources on four campuses: Applewood in Amherst, Loomis House in Holyoke, Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing in Springfield, and Loomis Village in South Hadley.