News from Cambridge Health Alliance

The following press releases were received by The Everett Mirror from Cambridge Health Alliance. We thought we'd share them with you:

WILLIAM D. HART JOINS CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop, MA….Francis H. Duehay, Chair of the Trustees of Cambridge Health Alliance (the Alliance) announced today the appointment of William D. Hart , a life-long resident of Everett, to the Alliance’s Joint Hospital Board which governs the three Cambridge Health Alliance hospitals-The Whidden Memorial Hospital, the Somerville Hospital, and the Cambridge Hospital.

“Mr. Hart’s experience in public and private management and communications will strengthen the diversity and skills of the Joint Hospital Board. He is a leader in several of the communities that we serve with ties to volunteer and charitable organizations and the business community. He will complement others already on the board to strengthen the mission of the Alliance to help communities become and stay healthy, to care for people when they are ill, and to teach health professionals to work in diverse communities,” said Duehay, Chair of the Trustees.

William D. Hart is currently deputy director of the Massachusetts Community Colleges Executive Office. He previously served as vice president of communications at Bunker Hill Community College, and is a member of the adjunct faculty at the college. He received his BA from Merrimack College, and his Master’s degree in Public Administration from Suffolk University.

Mr. Hart is a recent distinguished past president of the Chelsea Kiwanis Club, executive vice president of the of Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, and the first vice president of the Everett Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Metro North Regional Employment Board. Mr. Hart also serves on the Cambridge Health Alliance Foundation Board.
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Benefit performance for katrina survivors

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop, MA… Cambridge Health Alliance [The Alliance] will present a benefit performance by a children’s theatre companies of adaptations of Dr. Seuss stories at the Macht auditorium, in the Macht Building on the campus of Cambridge Hospital, 1493 Cambridge Street, Sunday October 9, 2005 from 3 to 5 p.m. Voluntary donations ($5 children/$10 adults recommended) will be matched up to $1000 by The Alliance. To reserve tickets, RSVP to Edricka Bain, 617-665-1132 (x1132). Proceeds including the matching dollar amount will be given to the American Red Cross. The stories are The Butter Battle Book and Yertle the Turtle, directed by CHA pediatrician Dr. Somava “Soma” Stout. The actors come from the Lexington-based Children’s Theater Company of Greater Boston. They have performed these two stories at a 9/11 commemorative event in Boston, and will take the show to Otis Air Force Base for the refugee children there on Sept. 24. Dr. Stout is an active adult medicine/pediatrician and medical director at Revere Family Health Center, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, in charge of the hospitalist program at Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett -- and an elementary school parent! Cambridge Health Alliance has designated three medical teams on standby for hurricane relief in Louisiana and for the displaced families at Otis. CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE is a regional healthcare system with three hospitals and more than twenty primary care practices in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston’s metro-North communities. As a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance offers medical residency/training programs and undergraduate learning experiences in hospital and community settings. Cambridge Health Alliance also includes the Cambridge Public Health Department, CHA Physicians Organization (CHAPO), and Network Health, a managed Medicaid plan.
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NOTABLE JOURNALIST JOINS CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop, MA….Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) announced today that Mark Zanger has joined the staff as Media Relations Manger. Zanger steps into the role with over two decades of solid journalism, PR, and advocacy experience. He has worked on several newspapers. Highlights include; editor–in-chief of The Real Paper, op-ed Editor for the Middlesex News (now MetroWest Daily News), feature writer at The Boston Herald, and in the Internet community, he was chief editor of Delphi Internet. He has previously done PR for Oxfam America and advocacy for the Mass Association for Bilingual Education and serves on the boards of two mental health groups – Parent Professional Advocacy League & Mood and Anxiety Disorder Institute Resource Advisory Board. He is the author of two books about culinary history.

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CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE VP DONNA FOX WINS MODERN HEALTHCARE'S 2005 “UP& COMER” AWARD

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Revere, Somerville, Winthrop, MA….
Donna K. Fox, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Cambridge Health Alliance (The Alliance), is a 2005 winner of the “Up & Comer” award of Modern Healthcare magazine. Only 12 health care executives in the nation received this honor. Co-sponsored by the executive search firm Witt/Kieffer, the award recognizes “rising stars in healthcare management 40 years of age and under.”

“I’m thrilled to see this national recognition for the job Donna Fox has done to benefit the Alliance and our service communities,” said Alliance CEO Dennis D. Keefe. “She has worked at the Alliance for nine years, and has been central to our growth and the strengthening of our mission over that time. I created her VP position to provide focus and expertise to the challenge of navigating the legislative and regulatory environments. With 80 percent of our patient revenue coming through government-funded programs, Donna Fox is a big part of keeping the doors open.”

Fox joined the newly merged Cambridge and Somerville hospitals in 1996 to coordinate the indigent care program. Not long after, Medicaid expanded and Fox was a principal architect in the design and launch of CHA’s Medicaid health plan, Network Health. In 2001, Fox became a principal member of the Whidden Memorial Hospital (WMH) acquisition team, serving as a key negotiator and working to save the two affiliated psychiatric units, which were at risk of closing.

In 2003, Fox became CHA’s first vice president of government affairs. In this capacity, she has focused on funding and supporting policy directions in Medicaid, Medicare, the state’s Uncompensated Care Pool, public health programs, and federal appropriations