Care New England (CNE) announced today that it has named Paari Gopalakrishnan, MD, MBA, as the new chief medical officer for Kent Hospital and medical director for Integra Community Care Network. He will begin November 26, 2018.
Dr. Gopalakrishnan comes to Kent Hospital after most recently serving as chief, Division of Hospitalist Medicine at Greenville Health System in Greenville, SC. He also served as clinical assistant professor, University of South Carolina School of Medicine – Greenville. There, he championed a rapidly growing division encompassing acute-care hospitalist medicine, post-acute care medicine, section of inpatient psychiatry, and point of care ultrasound. Prior to his time at Greenville Health System, Dr. Gopalakrishnan served as the director of the inpatient medical group (hospitalists) at Kent Hospital from 2009 to 2015.
Raymond Powrie, MD, Kent Hospital interim president said, “On behalf of CNE and Kent Hospital, we are extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Gopalakrishnan back to Rhode Island and Kent Hospital. He has a proven record of accomplishment and clinical success throughout his career to date and will certainly be a tremendous asset to the leadership team as we continue to focus on key initiatives of quality, patient safety, and satisfaction. This is an exciting time for Kent as we not only welcome Dr. Gopalakrishnan later this year, but also new hospital president, Robert Haffey, next month. Re-establishing the foundations of Kent’s leadership has been our priority, and I believe we are now positioning the hospital well for many years to come.”
Said Dr. Gopalakrishnan, “As the new chief medical officer at Kent Hospital, I am looking forward to returning to an institution that has already been an important part of my career in health care. This new opportunity will afford me the chance to further guide Kent as it continues its journey towards excellence, while providing high quality patient care to the community who looks to this hospital for their services.”
While at Greenville Health System, Dr. Gopalakrishnan was responsible for the establishment of new programs and initiatives within the division including the acquisition of new hospitalist programs, the development of an outpatient transition care program, and the expansion of acute care providers into skilled nursing facilities. In addition, he was instrumental in realizing significant improvement in patient satisfaction, quality outcomes, patient flow, physician engagement, and nurse-physician collaboration. While director of the inpatient medical group (hospitalists) at Kent Hospital, Dr. Gopalakrishnan was responsible for the multi-specialty group encompassing Kent’s Intensive Care Unit, House Officer Physician Assistant Program, and the hospitalist program which serves both Kent and Women & Infants hospitals. Earlier in his career, Dr. Gopalakrishnan also served as associate director, Division of Hospitalist Medicine at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, RI.
Dr. Gopalakrishnan received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and completed his internal medicine residency at Brown University. He received his MBA with honors from Bryant University.
Kent Hospital, a Care New England Hospital, is a 359-bed, acute care hospital. It is Rhode Island’s second largest hospital, serving approximately 300,000 residents of central Rhode Island.
A teaching affiliate of The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kent offers programs in Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and an Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship. Kent’s redesigned Emergency Department (ED) sees approximately 70,000 patients a year and ranks Kent’s ED volume among the top 10-percent nationally. It was the first hospital in the state to eliminate the practice of ambulance diversion.