Dr. James E. Fanale

FACING MAJOR CHALLENGES has been nothing new for Dr. James E. Fanale since he became CEO and president of Care New England Health System in 2018. But overcoming those challenges has been pivotal to help the health care organization move forward.

Fanale had to oversee the recent closure of Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket after the hospital fell into significant financial difficulty. Then, as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged Rhode Island and stressed its health care operations, Care New England sustained heavy financial losses due to canceling elective surgeries and elective procedures at the pandemic’s genesis in March 2020.

However, Fanale, in leading Care New England – which operates Kent County Memorial Hospital, Women & Infants Hospital and Butler Hospital – helped Butler Hospital navigate increased demand for mental-health services and substance-use treatment programs, as well as increase telehealth access for such services. He also worked with state officials in setting up a COVID-19 field hospital in Cranston that went into operation in late 2020 to handle overflow patients during the pandemic’s second surge.

But one of Fanale’s most prominent accomplishments as Care New England’s top executive is signing a definitive agreement in February 2021 to have his health care system merge with Lifespan Corp. into an integrated academic health system with Brown University. Merger talks have been on and off for the last two decades. It would be fed by $125 million in support from Brown over a five-year period.

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