New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Borgstrom to retire from YNHH
Led system through massive expansion, pandemic
“I have loved every minute of it . ... It’s a beautiful thing to be part of.” Marna Borgstrom
NEW HAVEN — Yale New Haven Health System President and Chief Executive Officer Marna Borgstrom, who led the largest health care institution in the state for 17 years and through the COVID-19 pandemic as well as overseeing massive expansions of its footprint and services, said Wednesday she will retire March 25 next year.
Borgstrom, who became chief executive officer of Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale New Haven Health in 2005, said “there is a time for leadership changes in every organization.” The Guilford resident said the arrival of the pandemic in March 2020 did not expedite her decision.
“If anything, it delayed because we felt that it would be a lot to deal with all at once,” Borgstrom said. “I have loved every minute of it. This is an amazing collection of people as a group. It’s a beautiful thing to be part of.”
Yale New Haven Health System’s board of directors has selected Christopher O’Connor, who
became president of the health care organization in August 2020, to become the hospital’s next chief executive officer.
O’Connor joined Yale
New Haven Health System in September 2012 when the organization acquired the Saint Raphael Healthcare System, where he was president and chief executive officer.
O’Connor called Borgstrom “an icon within our industry.”
“There is no way I can begin to fill her shoes,” he said.
Borgstrom said O’Connor “brings enormous talent” to the new duties he will be taking on next spring.
“He loves the communities in the Northeast that we serve,” she said of O’Connor. “He values the culture here that is not just what we do here, but how we do it.”
Borgstrom said she and the board have been discussing her retirement and transition to a new leader for more than a decade. She has served the health care organization in various capacities for more than 43 years.
“I got a letter 43 years ago this fall offering me an administrative fellowship, just as I was coming out of graduate
school,” Borgstrom said. “I told my husband I’d work here for a few years and we’d move out West. But I wasn’t able to make good on that promise because I every time I had an opportunity elsewhere, a new opportunity would come up here.”
Garrett Sheehan, president and chief executive officer of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, called Borgstrom
“the best of the best ... the unequivocal leader of our business community.”
“Health care is a driving force behind so much of the development that we have seen in New Haven during her tenure,” Sheehan said. “It is incredible to look at the
changes and expansions that she has led the Hospital through. She is committed to growing New Haven in a way that is inclusive and improves quality of life and quality of health for all of New Haven’s residents.”
Vince Calarco, chairman of the Yale New Haven Health System board, said O’Connor is “the best and most qualified person in healthcare” to lead the organization.
“I have worked with Chris over the years and know that his talent, experience and vision will ensure the continued success of the Health System,” Calarco said in a statement.
Borgstrom steered the health system through a series of challenges and milestones, including:
When coronavirus gripped the state in 2020 and brought thousands of victims to its hospitals.
The construction and opening of a premiere cancer center.
The opening of a new Primary Care Medical Center.
An expansion of health services to multiple satellite centers in the state.
Yale New Haven Health System has more than
28,500 employees and 6,900 medical staff, according to a spokeswoman with the organization.
In 2020, Gov. Ned Lamont appointed Borgstrom a co-chairwoman of the industry’s response to COVID-19.
“When I became Governor, no one could foresee the enormous impact of COVID-19 on Connecticut,” Lamont said in the statement. “In trying to navigate through this pandemic, I knew I had a friend who was an expert in the field to help me and our state respond, and that was Marna. She has been a partner since day one during some of the most trying times our state has ever seen.”
Lamont wished Borgstrom “all the best on an extremely well deserved retirement.”
Yale University President Peter Salovey called Borgstrom “a true partner.”
“She has long understood the importance of the relationship between the health system and Yale University, and she has fostered vital collaborations with the Yale School of Medicine to improve patient care and advance medical and clinical research,” Salovey said in a statement. “Her work has made a positive difference in our home city, across the state and throughout the nation.”
Borgstrom, who graduated from Yale in 1979 with a master’s degree in public health, began her career at the 1,541-bed Yale New Haven Hospital as an administrative fellow.
Her tenure has included staff and management roles and, in 1994, Borgstrom became executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Then, in 2005, she became CEO of Yale New Haven Hospital and CEO of Yale New Haven Health and now remained as the CEO of both, according to the hospital. The system then included Bridgeport Hospital and Greenwich Hospital and a combined operating budget of $1.3 billion.
Borgstrom oversaw the completion of the $51 million
South Pavilion renovation and the $156 million YaleNew Haven Children’s Hospital, as well as the opening of the Shoreline Medical Center in Guilford. The newly constructed Smilow Cancer Hospital opened in 2009 and the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center opened eight Smilow Cancer Care Centers in Connecticut in 2012.
In 2017, the health system served 75,868 patients, with its days of care provided at 442,930.
In one of the high-profile actions taken during Borgstom’s tenure, Yale New Haven Hospital and thenseparate Hospital of Saint Raphael agreed in 2011 to merge into one hospital with two campuses.
The two hospitals signed an agreement at that time through which YNHH would buy St. Raphael’s assets for $160 million, YNHH Vice President Vincent Petrini said at the time. The move was seen as a way to provide better service and care for Greater New Haven and the region and because YNHH had limited ability to easily expand its campus.
St. Raphael’s was a 511bed hospital founded by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth in 1907.