Dr. Paari Gopalakrishnan is GBMC's new leader

GBMC has found a proven physician leader in its new President and Chief Executive Officer, Paari Gopalakrishnan, MD, MBA. In his time as Chief Medical Officer and then President and Chief Operating Officer for Kent Hospital, in Warwick, RI, Dr. Gopalakrishnan has certainly been tested.

 The past five years have been some of the most challenging in health care. The COVID-19 pandemic alone stretched resources in the moment, as teams struggled to treat the earliest COVID patients while remaining uninfected themselves. Hospitals lost revenue as inpatient procedures were postponed. In the months and years that followed, the cost of delivering care soared. Dr. Gopalakrishnan not only led Kent Hospital through these storms, but he successfully navigated a course back to financial stability. 

Finding True North 

In looking back on that time, Dr. Gopalakrishnan is clear about the keys to leading such a turnaround. “This is where your mission, vision, values – what the organization wants to do – has to be front and center. That has to be the true north. If you keep that in front of you, then the decisions you are making are aligned with that.” 

GBMC’s mission, vision, and values have guided the health care system well. In the time he has spent learning about the organization and its leaders, Dr. Gopalakrishnan has determined that GBMC is well positioned for continued success. “I think Dr. Chessare’s legacy is very clear,” he says. “GBMC has invested in cancer care, in the older adult population, palliative care, and hospice. GBMC has a very loyal and aligned market.” 

Two of Dr. Gopalakrishnan’s key initiatives at Kent align with advancement here. Kent launched Rhode Island’s first and only Hospital-at-Home program and expanded access to geriatric and specialty care at about the same time GBMC developed its Advanced Primary Care program and Gilchrist expanded in-home eldercare services. 

Leading Through Service 

Originally from College Station, Texas, Dr. Gopalakrishnan received his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, completed his internal medicine residency at Brown University, and earned his MBA with honors from Bryant University. His career spans both clinical and administrative leadership roles, including at Greenville Health System in South Carolina and earlier positions at Kent Hospital and The Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island. 

Dr. Gopalakrishnan and his wife, Ellen Slater Gopalakrishnan, have been married since 2003 and have five children. Ellen is a Nurse Practitioner in hematology and oncology. The family is continuing a tradition of helping others. 

“My parents instilled in me the importance of education, hard work, kindness, and most importantly, making a positive mark on this world,” he says. “They would say, ‘It isn't about the money you make, but rather the impact you make in this world.’ 

“Making an impact resonated with me,” he continues. “It was my driving force in becoming a physician. As a practicing hospitalist, I had the privilege of directly supporting the well-being of my patients daily.” 

“However, it was through my involvement in a quality improvement project that I came to appreciate the broader and more lasting impact I could make for my patients and community by stepping into a leadership role. Something shifted for me. I pursued my MBA twenty years ago with the aspiration of driving meaningful change in patient care at a system level and one day becoming the CEO of a health system.”