Cardiac surgery chief who led UMass overhaul moves on

The architect of a turnaround at UMass Memorial Medical Center's cardiac surgery program has left to join a hospital system in South Florida.

Dr. Lynn Harrison, 65, is the new clinical director of cardiac surgery at Baptist Health in Miami, the six-hospital healthcare system said this week. Harrison has been at the hospital since the spring, but an expanded cardiac and thoracic surgery group was announced Tuesday.

Harrison had been chief of cardiac surgery at UMass Memorial since 2006. Before that he was chair of surgery at Louisiana State University in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina closed hospitals where LSU surgeons operated.

He was brought in to UMass Memorial to lead a cardiac surgery program that was shut down for two months in 2005 after its death rates were significantly higher than the state average. The Worcester hospital's cardiac surgery program is now rated among the safest in the country, based on national quality measures.

Harrison's successor at UMass Memorial is Dr. Stanley Tam, who came to UMass Memorial from Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge.

Harrison said in an interview that he considered his job at UMass Memorial done, having helped get the cardiac surgery program back on its feet. He was recruited by Baptist, he said.

"I think it's good when you pass the baton to get out of the way and let whoever you pass it to to lead," he said.