2024 Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award

Dr. Keroack provides strategic, financial, and operational oversight for all services at Baystate Health and its subsidiary health plan, Health New England. Under his leadership, Baystate Health has expanded the reach and variety of its clinical services, incorporating two new community hospitals and growing its outpatient practices across the region. The system has been a national leader in adopting population-based approaches to organizing and financing health care, emphasizing prevention, wellness, care integration, and cost containment under a global budget for the majority of its patients. During this time, Baystate Health also enhanced its role as the sole academic medical center of western Massachusetts, growing the scope, sophistication and reach of its tertiary services, elevating its research programs, and opening UMMS-Baystate, a regional medical campus focused on the training of primary care physicians. The system has continued its long tradition of receiving national and regional awards for outstanding performance in safety, quality, and innovation during his tenure. Dr. Keroack also provides strategic oversight for philanthropic and community benefits activities in support of the health system. 

Dr. Keroack served as Baystate Health’s system chief operating officer from 2013 – 2014 and as its chief physician executive and president of Baystate Medical Practices from 2011 – 2013. He came to Baystate Health from University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) in Oak Brook, Illinois, where he served as senior vice president and chief medical officer. At UHC, a national alliance of over 100 academic medical centers, he oversaw programs for clinical and operational performance improvement, faculty group practice management, and patient safety. He also led UHC’s research to define the leadership and management practices associated with top organizational performance in quality care. Prior to his national work, he served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts for 12 years, where he focused on HIV and AIDS care and won five annual teaching awards. Beginning in 1995, Dr. Keroack took on a more administrative role, serving as the first president of the 700-physician UMass Memorial Medical Group and the vice president of Medical Management for UMass Memorial Health Care. He has authored over 50 publications. 

Dr. Keroack is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Medical School and received his MPH from Boston University. He trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He serves on several local boards focused on improving the quality of life in his native Springfield and across western Massachusetts, as well as several state and national boards. He is married to Dr. Ann Errichetti, and they have two grown daughters now living in Massachusetts and Vermont.