Health

HEALTH • Spring 2016 5 Faris to retire from Spectrum WORCESTER — Spectrum Health Systems President and CEO Charles "Chuck" Faris has announced he will retire in July after 16 years leading the Worcester nonprofit. Faris joined the addiction services nonprofit in 1971 as a coun- selor and climbed the ranks up to associate executive director in 1979, vice president in 1985 and to presi- dent and chief executive officer in 2000. In December, Worcester Business Journal named him a Central Massachusetts Power Player. "As I transition to this new phase, I plan to stay active in the addiction treatment field," he said. Acupuncture school bringing 120 employees to Worcester WORCESTER — MCPHS University will bring the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA) from Newton to downtown Worcester and along with it, more than 120 employees as well as 200 students and numerous clients. Renovations to the building at 19 Norwich Street are scheduled to be completed by July in order to receive students, faculty, and staff for the fall 2016 semester. Saint Vincent hires COO WORCESTER — Saint Vincent Hospital has a new chief operating officer, Ava Jo Collins. Collins comes to Worcester from a 20-year career at Ochsner Health Systems in New Orleans, the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in Louisiana, said Steve MacLauchlan, CEO of Saint Vincent Hospital. Collins most recent position at Ochsner was COO and vice president of operations. Saint Vincent's former COO Deborah Bitsoli is now the president of Morton Hospital in Taunton, which is part of the Steward Health Care System. UMass Memorial saves $25M in refinancing WORCESTER — UMass Memorial Health Care issued bonds that will save the organization just shy of $25 million dollars in a refinancing move officials say could not have been car- ried out at a more perfect time. UMass Memorial issued its bonds to refinance approximately $140 million dollars of debt on Jan. 20 in the shad- ow of a volatile stock market. However, it was not only the volatility in the market and investors looking for a more stable investment. The bonds happened to be offered on a day where investors had money to spend. The organization's recent return to investment-grade status by organi- zations such as Fitch Ratings contrib- uted to a large demands for the bonds. Speaking to this demand is when the bonds were issued, they were oversub- scribed at a ratio of 7 to 1. Spectrum receives $115K to fight opioid abuse WORCESTER — Spectrum Health Systems will receive federal funding through a partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) to combat the ongoing opioid abuse crisis. The funding from the Byrne grant is designed to help district attorneys, sheriffs and other criminal justice agencies as part of the state's Heroin and Opioid Crime Reduction State Initiative. According to Spectrum, the $115,000 in funding will go towards expanding its Correctional Recovery Academy programming to serve the growing number of offend- ers with opioid addiction within the state correctional system. Fallon posts $6.8M loss WORCESTER —Worcester's Fallon Health posted a net loss of $6.8 mil- lion for fiscal 2015, citing continued pressures on the industry and rising drug prices. The insurance company reported $1.2 billion in revenue for the year, down approximately $100 million from the previous year, and an operating loss of $17.5 million. Membership was also down slightly for the company, dropping from 225,832 in 2014 to 222,328 at the close of the 2015 fiscal year. QCC to train nurses for Century Homecare Use building photo of QCC from 12/29/14 WBJ WORCESTER — Worcester home healthcare provider Century Homecare has partnered with Quinsigamond Community College to train 20 of its home health aides as nurses and eventually, RNs. The company — which provides home health care statewide — and the commonwealth have invested about $550,000 into putting 20 of Century's aides through QCC's nine- month nursing certification pro- gram. Once they finish school and complete their RN certification, the students will be eligible for manage- ment positions at Century. UMass treating opioid addiction in jails WORCESTER — UMass Medical School will take the fight against opioids within prison walls through a new health collaborative with a focus on bringing evidence-based treatment for substance abuse and Hepatitis C to prisons and jails, the school announced. The correctional health collaborative will involve treatment teams at four prison and jail systems from the United States. They will be guided by implementa- tion science experts as they care for those with substance-use disorders, with emphasis on opioids, as well as screening and treatment for Hepatitis C, according to the school. About 80 percent of the prison pop- ulation has a substance use disorder; more than 17 percent are infected { Health Care Briefs } Continued on Page 6 VA clinic completed at UMass Medical School WORCESTER — Maynard construction management firm JM Coull completed work at a new, 13,000-square-foot Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic located at Biotech Park in Worcester, adjacent to UMass Medical School. The new VA clinic, which hasn't yet opened, is located in the UMass Medicine Science Park on the campus of UMass Medical School. The VA and UMass Medical collaborated in the planning of the clinic, which will offer audiology, podiatry and optometry services to patients. The audiology suite includes three state-of-the art sound booths. Charles "Chuck" Farris

• Cover