Conn. hospital exec to lead HealthAlliance

Courtesy of UMass Memorial Health Care Deobroah Weymouth has been named the next president and CEO of HealthAlliance Hospital.

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HealthAlliance Hospital has tapped a longtime hospital leader with experience in integrating community hospitals into larger medical centers as its next president and CEO.

Deborah Weymouth will oversee the hospital’s Leominster and Fitchburg campuses when she assumes the top role June 16, its parent organization UMass Memorial Health Care said Tuesday.

Weymouth most recently served as executive director of Connecticut-based New Milford Hospital, and has 15 years of leadership experience in community hospital and health system settings.

“Her integration experience will serve us well as a member of the UMass Memorial Health Care system, while her leadership skills and community hospital experience will allow the hospital to expand on its successes,” Paul D’Onfro, chairman of the hospital’s board of trustees, said in a UMMHC statement.

New Milford Hospital is part of the Western Connecticut Health Network, where Weymouth also worked as chief integration officer to reduce variations in care delivery, according to UMMHC.

Prior to her time in Connecticut, Weymouth was chief operating officer and executive vice president at F.F. Thompson Hospital in western New York, where she restored the system to profitability for the first time in six years. She has also worked as a commercial banking executive.

“This dedicated and committed team of physicians, clinicians, board members and staff made it very clear to me that this is an organization that understands its mission to its community and takes pride in exceeding expectations,” Weymouth said in a statement.

Weymouth succeeds Patrick Muldoon, who became president of UMass Memorial Medical Center in July 2013. Michael Cofone, HealthAlliance’s chief financial officer, has filled in as interim president since.

The UMass Memorial system has been struggling as of late, with HealthAlliance announcing the elimination of 10.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) nursing, support and information positions in April, and the medical center announcing 388 FTE position cuts since October.

HealthAlliance employs roughly 1,300, or some 900 FTEs.