Care New England affiliating with The Providence Center

CARE NEW ENGLAND President and CEO Dennis D. Keefe, left, and The Providence Center's President and CEO Dale Klatzker, right, are shown signing the formal agreement which affiliates the two organizations. / COURTESY JOE GIBLIN
CARE NEW ENGLAND President and CEO Dennis D. Keefe, left, and The Providence Center's President and CEO Dale Klatzker, right, are shown signing the formal agreement which affiliates the two organizations. / COURTESY JOE GIBLIN

PROVIDENCE – Care New England will affiliate with The Providence Center, marking its latest effort to create partnerships focused on a shared mission to provide integrated health care.
Boards of both organizations recently voted in favor of the affiliation, which was approved by the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.
The affiliation also supports efforts of Care New England to become an “accountable care organization,” which is an organization focused on providing for the overall health of a population though offering integrated, high-quality and cost-effective health and wellness services.
The affiliation builds upon community-based services of VNA of Care New England and the Care New England Wellness Center, and adds community-based behavioral health programs to Care New England’s brain and behavioral health acute care, teaching and research programs at Butler Hospital.
The affiliation also enhances the relationship with Women & Infants and further strengthens The Providence Center’s collaboration with Memorial and Kent hospitals’ emergency departments.
Care New England is now more closely affiliated with primary care physicians from the Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corp., and has partnered with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island in several pilot projects to improve care delivery.
“We are inspired by the powerful interconnection between primary health and mental health,” Dennis D. Keefe, president and CEO of Care New England, said in a statement. “We are excited by the opportunities this new partnership provides in caring for a population when and where it is most effective. Together, we will continue on the path to transforming the way health care is delivered with a shared vision of creating a community of healthier people.”
Said Dale Klatzker, president and CEO of nonprofit The Providence Center, “Becoming part of the Care New England family will allow The Providence Center to continue serving our clients in a community setting and to expand the services and programs available to them. It will ensure that we will be able to offer the right care, at the right time, in the right setting and to meet the full continuum of need, both physical and mental.”
The Providence Center employees will not become Care New England employees, but the financial statements will be consolidated as a result of the formal affiliation, according to a Care New England spokesman.

The Providence Center serves more than 13,000 children and adults annually through 13 locations in Providence, Burrillville, Cranston, Pawtucket and Warwick. Services include more than 40 programs and wraparound services for mental health and addiction treatment.

The Care New England health care system includes primary care and specialty physicians; three teaching hospitals affiliated with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Butler, Memorial and Women & Infants; a community hospital, Kent, affiliated with the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine; a home care and hospice agency, the VNA of Care New England; a community-based mental health provider organization, The Providence Center; and Care New England Wellness Center.

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