Longtime CEO leaves Caritas Health Care
The Boston Archdiocese said yesterday that Dr. Michael F. Collins, a longtime leader in Boston health care, will no longer head the Archdiocese's large Catholic hospital and physician network.
The Archdiocese would not comment on whether Collins, 48, was fired or whether he resigned. But John Drew, a Boston developer and chairman of the Caritas Christi Health Care System board of governors, said Archdiocese officials including Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley asked Collins "to step aside."
Drew said that O'Malley telephoned him at 6:30 p.m. Friday to relay the change in leadership. "He said he believes in the system, and he wants to strengthen and grow the system," Drew said. "I think the Archbishop has decided to seek a new person to run the system."
The Archdiocese released a statement announcing the change yesterday. "Archbishop O'Malley expresses his great thanks to Doctor Collins for his substantial progress in helping to build the Caritas Christi System into what it is today and for his particular devotion to quality Catholic health care," the statement read. Emmett C. Murphy, a health care consultant, will serve as interim president and chief executive of the Caritas system, Archdiocese officials said.
Collins could not be reached for comment last night. A spokesman for Caritas, Richard Doherty, said Collins did not want to speak about the situation.
Collins, who also is a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, has worked at Caritas Christi for 18 years. He has been president and chief executive officer for 10 years. Like many hospital systems in Massachusetts, Caritas has struggled financially.
The network, which is headed by St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, had an operating loss of $15.9 million in 2002 and a net loss of $8.6 million. But last year, the system looked like it was beginning a turnaround. Caritas earned $3 million in the year ending Sept. 30, 2003, in part because of a one-time late-year $11 million payment from the state Medicaid program to compensate the system for treating a large number of poor patients.
Collins had been working without a contract since June 30, when his four-year pact with the hospital board expired, according to an individual involved in the conflict. O'Malley told Collins three weeks ago that the board intended to give him a three-year contract, the source said. Collins went into a morning meeting Friday with the Board of Incorporators believing that the board would formally approve his contract.
Instead, according to the source, Collins was told by O'Malley that the board would not be approving the contract and Bishop Richard G. Lennon asked for his resignation. Collins refused to offer his resignation, telling the board that he first needed to consult his lawyer.
"Mike Collins has done a great job for us," Drew said. "He's created a system. We had separate hospitals that all had to be incorporated into the system. We have been very very successful in solving our problems. The state has been very good at helping us out with Carney Hospital, and Norwood Hospital has turned itself around."
Drew said, however, "we respect the fact that the Archbishop can make this decision."
Caritas has struggled partly because its hospitals serve poor communities and partly because it competes with Partners HealthCare, a Harvard teaching hospital system and financial powerhouse headed by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Jack Connors Jr., chairman of the Partners' board, said he is surprised and disappointed by Collins's departure.
"I've known him for quite some time, and I've respected him," he said. "He's been successful in spite of a lack of resources. He's really made do with limited resources. That system is an important resource in this market because it provides an awful lot of care to an awful lot of people."
