New St. Ray’s CEO:
We’re Here For
The Black Community

He started talking about hypertension screening — and ended up saying there’s more to be done.

The subject Tuesday night was how the Hospital of St. Raphael interacts with New Haven’s black community. The setting was Varick AME Zion Church.

Christopher O’Connor, the hospital’s new CEO, stood at the front of the church sanctuary before more than 75 members to introduce himself, describe his vision for the hospital and take their questions. After brief introductory remarks, they weren’t shy about asking. The meeting went on over an hour; it had to be ended with hands still in the air because of a previously scheduled service.

“What do you do about hypertension in the black community?” asked Lamar Robinson (pictured), who stood up with a list of questions in his hand. Questions followed about HIV, prostate cancer and obesity.

O’Connor said St. Raphe’s conducts blood pressure screenings to get people on the meds they need to control high blood pressure and stay out of the hospital. The hospital’s HIV/AIDS clinic provides care to those without insurance.

Medicine has made ​“great advances” in diagnosing and treating prostate cancer, he said.

And the hospital’s Project Brotherhood does outreach focusing on African American men. He said the hospital was a pioneer in bariatric surgery to treat obesity.

But prevention is key, he added. ​“At the end of the day, this goes back to making sure that from a lifestyle perspective and a preventative perspective, we’re avoiding obesity, not treating it after it’s already taken place.”

The new chief grew up in New Haven. Early on he worked there as an emergency room tech. He came back after grad school to work in the administration, left again, and returned last year to take over the helm. Besides his own fondness for the institution, he said, he has another incentive to do a good job: ​“My mom is an employee, and if I mess up I can’t go home for Thanksgiving.”

O’Connor said that when the hospital closed its books on 2008 with a $36 million deficit — because it was and is committed to serving those in need regardless of ability to pay — that triggered higher scrutiny from its bondholders.

“The paradox is that we continue to serve a growing number of people,” he said, ​“but the reimbursement we were getting was diminishing.” He said due to the complicated nature of insurance reimbursements, the hospital has actually added jobs during the recession, on the business side, to maximize those payments.

He added that of the hospital’s 3,000 employees, 900 are from New Haven, making it ​“a vital part of this city’s economic condition.”

He said he’s focusing on finances, quality of care and patient service, and described progress in all arenas (such as greatly reducing response time in handling heart attacks). ​“We can do better,” he added.

Other questions focused on the hospital’s modest homebuyer program, job training, school partnerships, and whether O’Connor might initiate a community board to advise the hospital. (He said he hasn’t gotten that far yet, but he just started an employee advisory group.)

Varick’s pastor, Eldren Morrison (pictured), welcomed O’Connor to the church. ​“I’m more concerned with the hospitals than City Hall,” he said. ​“I’m not going to City Hall if I get sick.”