Julie Abilheira | President, Morton Hospital and Saint Anne’s Hospital
1. What skills and experience from your most recent role as Brown University Health’s senior vice president of clinical services will prove most beneficial in your new position? My previous role gave me the opportunity to work closely with every hospital president across Brown University Health, including our Massachusetts hospitals. That systemwide perspective gave me a strong understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing Saint Anne’s and Morton.
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Having spent more than 25 years with Brown University Health, I’ve built relationships across the organization and understand how to bring people together around a common goal.
2. As president, what will you focus on to ensure the sustainability of both hospitals when healthcare facilities in both states are under financial strain? Our immediate priority is rebuilding access to care, and that starts with recruiting and retaining physicians and other providers. Restoring physician capacity is critical to bringing patients back into the system and ensuring they receive care close to home.
3. Nearly two years after Brown Health acquired Morton and Saint Anne’s, how successful has their integration been and where is there room to improve? Brown Health has made tremendous progress in a relatively short period of time. One of our earliest milestones was implementing Epic across both hospitals, giving providers access to a shared electronic medical record that allows for more seamless coordination of care.
4. Having been with Brown Health for more than 20 years, how have the demands on the healthcare system changed since you started? We’re caring for an aging population with increasingly complex medical needs while managing rising labor, supply and technology costs. Simultaneously, reimbursements have not kept pace with those costs, creating ongoing financial pressure for health systems.
We’re seeing rapid advances in technology, digital health and artificial intelligence, along with new competitors entering healthcare from the private equity and technology sectors. Patients expect greater convenience, better access and more connected care than ever before.
5. How will you manage the needs of two separate hospitals with different socioeconomic conditions? Both hospitals are essential to their communities, and they share the same mission of providing high-quality, compassionate care close to home. I plan to spend significant time at both hospitals and be visible and accessible to our teams. I’m fortunate to have a strong leadership team; together, we’ll work closely to address each community’s specific needs while sharing best practices and resources across both organizations.
