Dr. Paari Gopalakrishnan, Kent County Memorial Hospital’s president and chief operating officer, was named to the position in April after years of serving in leadership positions at the hospital and at Care New England Health System, which operates Kent Hospital.
Gopalakrishnan, an internal medicine specialist, has been chief medical officer at Kent Hospital and medical director for Integra Community Care Network since late 2018. He also led Kent’s COVID-19 field hospital operations in late 2020 and early 2021 during a spike in infection rates across Rhode Island.
PBN: How are Kent’s staffing levels, particularly nurses?
GOPALAKRISHNAN: Staffing across the board is our No. 1 issue and nurse staffing is our biggest challenge. We are actively recruiting new nurses, creating innovative training programs for new graduates, developing retention strategies and relying on travel nurses in certain areas.
PBN: As Hasbro Children’s Hospital deals with long wait times in its emergency department, has Kent seen an uptick in the number of children coming in for emergency visits?
GOPALAKRISHNAN: We haven’t seen a substantial uptick of pediatric patients in our emergency department. I assume that many of the children in our community have good access to health care via their pediatricians.
PBN: How are Kent’s operations now as compared with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic?
GOPALAKRISHNAN: From a COVID-19 perspective, we are in good shape. The number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital is manageable and our processes are much more defined than two years ago. Although the numbers are manageable, COVID-19 impacts our operations daily. The safety measures we implemented during the pandemic to keep our patients and staff safe still exist and they take time.
PBN: Where are your priorities now as the virus continues to recede?
GOPALAKRISHNAN: My priorities are pretty simple – continue to provide high-quality care and support our staff. I am proud of the high-quality care that we provide, as evidenced by the most recent Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Grade of an “A”; however, we have to be preoccupied with failure to ensure we are providing the safest care possible.
My other priority is our staff. We have some amazing people that work at Kent Hospital, and it is my job to ensure they have the tools to do their job, feel valued and empowered. It is my job to make them want to keep working at Kent Hospital.
PBN: We’ve already heard predictions from national health experts who are expecting a surge in COVID-19 cases this fall and winter. Do you have any thoughts on what is likely to happen in Rhode Island?
GOPALAKRISHNAN: I don’t, but we will be ready. The one thing I have learned leading through this pandemic is to be prepared for anything.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
