BOSTON – Caritas Christi Health Care, the Catholic health system that includes Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, has set up a new cardiovascular care network under the leadership of cardiologist Dr. Jeffrey J. Popma, who for the past year has led the cardiac catheterization lab at Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston.
The goal of the network, said Dr. Ralph de la Torre, the system’s new president and CEO, is to “enable patients to receive world-class health care in their communities without having to travel great distances.” He added that other regional networks in other clinical areas are to be announced “in the near future.”
Historically, specialized care, including cardiovascular care, has been offered only at larger hospitals, but the trend in recent years has been to bring such services closer to where patients live.
The cardiovascular network will give patients at Caritas’ six community hospital access to a “nationally and internationally recognized team of cardiologists, cardiac and vascular surgeons, and vascular medicine specialists,” with Popma overseeing operations and coordinating care, the system said in a news release.
“Dr. Popma energetically built his department at Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and assembled an impressive team of coronary and vascular interventionalists,” de la Torre said. “His extensive experience, dedication and commitment to patient care make him an ideal choice to lead this new initiative.”
Prior to joining Caritas Christi, Popma worked for nine years at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; previously, he directed the Angiographic Core Laboratory at the Washington Hospital Center.
Along with Saint Anne’s, the hospitals to be served by the new network include Caritas Holy Family Hospital, Methuen; Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Brighton; Caritas Carney Hospital, Dorchester; Caritas Norwood Hospital; and Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center, Brockton.
Established in 1985 by the Archdiocese of Boston, Caritas Christi is the second-largest health system in New England, with 12,000 employees, 1,552 hospital beds and more than 73,500 annual patient discharges.
Along with its six community hospitals, Caritas Christi operates a 400-physician group practice, an academic medical research institute, a health sciences college, a clinical laboratory network, centers for hospice and home care, and an international medical services agency for the poor.
For more information, visit www.caritaschristi.org.
