Cardiac surgeon to lead ailing Caritas
Medical entrepreneur ran Beth Israel unit
Caritas Christi Health Care, the ailing hospital chain owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, is expected today to hire as chief executive a young cardiac surgeon and medical entrepreneur who enjoys snowboarding and fine wine.
Ralph de la Torre, 41, the chief of cardiac surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has built Beth Israel's Cardiovascular Institute into a thriving business within the hospital.
He is known as a tough negotiator who is able to prevail through his passion and inexhaustible energy.
"This man has the energy, intelligence, focus, drive, human skills, and connections to turn Caritas around," said Dr. Marc A. Bard, a partner in the Bard Group, a hospital consulting firm in Needham. "They've made a brilliant choice. He's a pragmatist who knows how to innovate. He will challenge what needs to be challenged."
De la Torre said yesterday he has not yet signed a contract with Caritas Christi, but was looking forward to starting within the month. He said the hiring process moved swiftly after he was urged to seek the position less than a month ago.
"When I met with some of the board members, it was a good mesh and I knew it was going to work," he said.
Initially, de la Torre said, he will draw on his undergraduate training at Duke University as a biomedical engineer.
"I'm going to start analyzing everything that's going on and figure out all the pieces of the puzzle," he said, "all the way down to the relationships between the local hospitals and the local doctors."
The Caritas Christi board is scheduled to meet this morning to confirm de la Torre's selection. A Caritas Christi spokesman declined to comment.
De la Torre grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., in a Cuban-American family. He did not speak English until he was 6 years old, he said. His father is a cardiologist.
His passions include snowboarding at Loon Mountain, Waterville Valley, and Stowe, and fine wines, and rum.
"You can't be Cuban and not enjoy rum," he said.
His wife, Wing de la Torre, is a physician who works at Biogen Idec Inc.'s venture capital group.
At Beth Israel Deaconess, he recently set up the Cardiovascular Institute, which united a variety of cardiac care disciplines and also exports its expertise to community hospitals through satellite cardiac centers. Recently, Beth Israel Deaconess established a cardiac joint venture with Caritas Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, one of the chain's six hospitals.
"Ralph is an extraordinarily talented surgeon and an excellent business strategist," said Paul Levy, the chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "He is an excellent choice for this position."
In the year ended Sept. 30, 2006, de la Torre earned salary, bonus, and other compensation of $1.34 million, according to a regulatory filing by the Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the group that represents Beth Israel Deaconess doctors.
An attorney who represented doctors in talks with the Cardiovascular Institute said he was impressed by de la Torre's negotiating skills.
"He has a powerful aura," said Mark G. Shub of Shub & Associates PC, a Boston law firm that specializes in healthcare transactions. "He can quickly delineate what the deal breakers are. You learn fairly early on that those are non-negotiable points.
"He will continue shaking an issue until it gets resolved," Shub added. "He's not looking for long periods of deliberation."
The hiring of de la Torre may end a period of turmoil for Caritas Christi. Former chief executive Dr. Robert M. Haddad was forced to resign in May 2006 amid allegations he sexually harassed several female employees. The chain initially looked for a new chief executive, but the archdiocese eventually suspended the search and asked a consultant to explore strategic options. As a result, the archdiocese said last year it had decided to sell the hospitals to another Catholic healthcare provider.
But a preliminary agreement for the chain to be purchased by Ascension Health of St. Louis fell apart last summer, and talks with Catholic Health Initiatives of Denver failed last fall. The archdiocese then decided to restart the search for a chief executive and attempt to manage its way out of financial difficulties.
Caritas suffered another setback in January when its first choice for the job, Dr. Christopher T. Olivia, the chief executive of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J., declined the offer and took a job as the chief executive of West Penn Allegheny Health System of Pittsburgh.
Most recently, state Attorney General Martha Coakley issued an independent review of Caritas Christi that recommended the flagship hospital, St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, abandon its role as an academic medical center and become a community teaching hospital. The report also recommended Caritas Carney Hospital in Dorchester be converted to a mental health facility while retaining some hospital functions.
De la Torre said he is interested in developing cardiac care at the Caritas Christi system. There may also be further relationships with Beth Israel Deaconess.
"We look forward to future joint ventures that are mutually beneficial for the many patients served by Beth Israel Deaconess and Caritas Christi hospitals," said Levy.
Jeffrey Krasner can be reached at krasner@globe.com.
