SPHS Names Leadership Team at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital

HOLYOKE — The Sisters of Providence Health System (SPHS) announced that three physicians have been named to expanded leadership roles for Mercy Behavioral Health Care and Providence Behavioral Health Hospital (PBHH) in Holyoke. The appointments are effective Jan. 1.

Maria Russo-Appel, MD, who has served as the chief medical officer of PBHH for the past year, has been appointed to the position of vice president of Mercy Behavioral Health Care. In this role, Russo-Appel will lead the psychiatric care and behavioral health service lines, including PBHH, for SPHS.
Also, Robert Roose, MD, MPH, who has been serving as chief medical officer of Addiction Services of SPHS for the past the two and a half years, will have expanded responsibilities in a dual role as CMO/vice president of Addiction and Recovery Services, Mercy Behavioral Health Care, and will assume both medical and administrative leadership responsibilities for all addiction treatment and recovery service lines. And Gaurav Chawla, MD, CPE, who has been serving as chief of Psychiatry, will assume the role of chief medical officer, Mercy Behavioral Health Care, and lead new SPHS initiatives in behavioral health such as integration of behavioral health in both primary care and integration into population health management.

As one of the largest providers of behavioral health services in western Massachusetts, Mercy Behavioral Health Care provides access to an entire continuum of high-quality inpatient and outpatient care for people of all ages, from children and adolescents to adults and seniors. Mercy Behavioral Health Care includes both the continuums of Addiction and Recovery Services, from Acute Treatment Services to Outpatient and Opioid Treatment Programs, and Behavioral Health, from inpatient psychiatric treatment to the programs within Brightside for Families and Children.

As chief medical officer of PBHH, Russo-Appel has been responsible for the medical leadership at Providence, including the coordination of all patient care and safety, quality assessment, risk management, patient satisfaction and improvement in health care programs. Dr. Russo-Appel’s tenure at PBHH marked her return to the Sisters of Providence Health System, where she served as Medical Director for Medical Psychiatry at Mercy Medical Center from 2003 to 2007.

Board-certified in Adult Psychiatry, Russo-Appel has a special interest women’s issues in psychiatry as well as Comorbid medical and psychiatric illnesses. She is a graduate of Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University. She completed her residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, where she also completed her fellowship in Administrative Psychiatry.

“Dr. Russo-Appel has been a tremendous asset to Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, where she has consistently demonstrated clinical expertise, leadership and compassion,” said Daniel P. Moen, President and Chief Executive Officer, SPHS. “We are fortunate to have her on our team in this expanded role as Vice President of Mercy Behavioral Health Care where her skills will have a greater impact on the patients we serve.”
Said Russo-Appel, “Providence Behavioral Health Hospital provides a wide range of much-needed behavioral health services to patients of all ages, and as a result, plays a vital role in the community. I am honored to work side-by-side with our talented colleagues to further Providence’s mission to serve as a transforming, healing presence.”
In addition to his responsibilities at PBHH, Roose is currently on the Quality Improvement Council of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Treatment Task Force of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, and Massachusetts Governor Baker’s Opioid Addiction Working Group. He has presented and published on various aspects of addiction treatment, focusing primarily on patients receiving medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, and his work integrating Hepatitis C treatment and a peer program into an opioid treatment program is also featured in an award-winning documentary The Fix: The Healing is Mutual.

Roose earned his Doctor of Medicine and Master in Public Health degrees at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington D.C. and completed his residency training at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY.

Chawla originally joined SPHS as staff psychiatrist in 2003 and served as the associate medical director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from 2007 to 2010. He returned to PBHH in 2012 as the director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and assumed the role of chief of Psychiatry in 2014.

A certified physician executive, Chawla is also board certified in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. He received his General Psychiatry training at Medical University of Ohio and fellowship training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tufts University Medical Center in Boston. Chawla has a particular commitment to patient-centered care and population health management. He serves on the Tiger Team of Trinity Health concentrating on strategy around Population Behavioral Health throughout the Trinity Health system.

“Dr. Roose and Dr. Chawla are talented physicians who not only understand the importance of high quality in the delivery of patient care; they also demonstrate exemplary leadership skills and comprehensive knowledge of behavioral health and substance abuse issues. These abilities will serve them well in their expanded positions with Mercy Behavioral Health Care,” said Moen.

Russo-Appel will succeed Candace Darcy who is returning to her leadership role at Behavioral Health Network (BHN) with the conclusion of the management services contract with BHN. “We are grateful to Candy for her efforts that have resulted in improvements at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in the areas of patient access, length of stay and fiscal performance,” said Moen. “Although our management services contract with Behavioral Health Network (BHN) is ending we are likewise grateful to them for partnering with us at Providence over the past year. We look forward to our continued, important work together in meeting the many behavioral health needs of our community. As behavioral population health management continues to evolve, we hope to pursue initiatives to better integrate inpatient and outpatient care in partnership with BHN.”