Diane P. Kelly, DNP, RN, president
(also executive vice president, Yale New Haven Health)
(part of Yale New Haven Health)
5 Perryridge Road, Greenwich
203-863-3000
What was your path to becoming a hospital president?
“I did not start out with a plan of becoming a health-care executive, let alone president of a hospital. I come from a family of physicians and nurses but actually made a clear choice to begin my career in business. I wanted to blaze my own path. Like many college students, I was looking for part-time employment and, after taking the advice of my family, started working at a long-term care facility, close to the college campus. (Clearly, they had not given up on seeing me in health care). The rest is history. I was completely moved by the experience of caring for others. To this day, I continue to feel what a privilege it is to be allowed into someone’s life in such a meaningful way. This experience led me to change my course and become a registered nurse. As a nurse, I saw the value of thinking about how all matters should be approached by considering ‘how does this affect those who are depending on us for their care?’ This perspective afforded me leadership opportunities along the way, which led me to returning to my original career goal of business while still in health care. I found that to completely understand the complexity of health care, I could better serve those depending on me if I understood the business side, which is what led me to pursing my MBA in health care. I often think I have come full circle. I do know that for me, working in health care has been much more than a career; it has been a way of life. “
What makes Greenwich Hospital distinctive?
“There are many things that make Greenwich Hospital distinctive, from our world-class alliance with Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) to our ability to provide our patients with highly specialized care close to home. Our partnership with YNHHS enables Greenwich Hospital to provide research-based, cutting-edge care within an academic health system environment. A hallmark of our hospital is the compassionate, patient-centered care our clinicians deliver. Year after year, Greenwich Hospital is nationally recognized for its top performance in patient experience and quality.”
What are its specialties?
“Greenwich Hospital is a full-service acute care hospital, with signature services across multiple clinical areas, including heart and vascular, oncology (part of the Smilow Cancer Hospital network, which is Connecticut’s only comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute), neurosciences and children’s and women’s health. In addition, we are continuing to grow our behavioral health and psychiatric services in partnership with Yale School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry. All these core clinical areas enable our highly trained physicians to provide technologically advanced, board-certified subspecialty care, affording our patients enhanced, complex services such as minimally invasive procedures to reverse symptoms of stroke, pediatric 24/7 emergency care and diagnostic and interventional cardiac services.”
Increasingly, hospitals are becoming part of health-care systems. What are the advantages of such networks?
“There are many advantages to being part of YNHHS that directly impact our patients, including access to clinical trials, state-of-the-art research, a multitude of board-certified specialists and review panels consisting of the country’s most esteemed physicians for complex cases. At some of the most challenging moments during the global pandemic, Greenwich Hospital had immediate unfettered access to life-saving equipment and skilled medical staff throughout the entire health system. I witnessed firsthand how scarce resources can become and how a larger health-care system has the ability to be highly agile, working together to ensure supplies and staff are directed to those patients and communities that need them most.”
What do you see in the future for Greenwich Hospital?
“Greenwich Hospital has the unique opportunity to continue to provide the personalized, compassionate care in a community setting as part of an academic health system. In the immediate few years, we will see further refinement of our core growth areas, increased access to clinical trials, specialty and subspecialty services and more seamless transitions of care. In addition, we will see the realization of a new Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Center in Greenwich, where our current board-certified medical, radiation and surgical oncologists use the most innovative approaches, research and technology to provide exceptional cancer treatment tailored to each patient in partnership with Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center.”
For more, visit greenwichhospital.org.
