Baystate Health’s Peter D. Banko Elected to the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association Board of Trustees

Baystate Health President & CEO Peter Banko was elected to the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Board of Trustees on January 30. MHA serves as the united voice for the commonwealth’s hospitals, health systems, and healthcare providers. 

“It is our honor to welcome Peter to the MHA Board at a critical time for the commonwealth’s healthcare system,” said MHA President and CEO Steve Walsh. “He brings a highly valuable national healthcare perspective to our mission, as well as a strong vision for the future of care delivery and patient access. We know he will bring the same compassion and ingenuity to MHA as he does to the Western New England region.”

As part of the MHA Board, Banko will help support the recovery of local hospitals and health systems, all of which have absorbed a relentless series of pressures dating back to the beginning of the pandemic. The Board will advocate with a united front to ease the capacity pressures, workforce shortages, and administrative burdens that are now challenging timely patient care across the commonwealth, and to restore financial stability to the state’s most important sector.

In the coming year, MHA and its Board will also build upon Massachusetts’ world-renowned legacy for healthcare innovation. Its priorities will include advancing state-of-the-art care outside the hospital, reimagining what an empowered healthcare profession looks like, and closing patient care disparities in new and creative ways. 

“We are blessed to have a health association that creates a bridge for collaboration and partnership amongst hospitals and health system leaders across Massachusetts,” said Banko. “We are individually and collectively connected through our mission-driven care, and I look forward to working together to advocate for health and health care in New England and to find opportunities to advance care for our neighbors and caregivers in Western Massachusetts.”

Under Banko’s leadership, Baystate Health is building a clinically driven and physician-led health care system to deliver high quality and safe care and experience to its neighbors. Through its strategic plan, Baystate seeks to be the economic and health pillar in New England, preferred destination to work and practice, and establish long-term financial resilience. The focus on returning Baystate to healthy growth affords the system the opportunity to remain an independent system and the ability to invest $1.2 billion over the next six years in operations and growth.

Prior to joining Baystate Health in June 2024, Peter served as President and CEO of Centura Health across Colorado, Kansas, and Utah, including seventeen years with Catholic Health Initiatives as Senior Vice President of Southeast Operations and national Chief Integration Officer, and President and CEO of St. Vincent in Little Rock, Arkansas. Previous senior leadership roles include CHRISTUS Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi, Texas, PhyAmerica Physician Group in Durham, North Carolina, and Saint Clare’s Health Services in Denville, New Jersey.