Dr. Guy Fish brings extensive experience as CEO
Codman Square Health Center has a new president and CEO. Dr. Guy Fish, who most recently led the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, took over the leadership post last week. The 64-year-old physician succeeds Sandra Cotterell, who months ago announced her plan to retire from Codman’s top job after 13 years at the helm.
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Fish has been a leader in healthcare and the private sector during his 40-year career. Fish told The Reporter Today on Monday that he was attracted to the position at Codman because of the company’s mission as a “historically recognized center for improving population health.”
“From the beginning, the goal was to build the best urban communities in America,” said Fish, who noted that the health center — with an annual operating budget of more than $55 million — has a mission that goes far beyond providing health services to its nearly 25,000 patients each year. It is also a major driver of wellness in large swathes of Boston’s neighborhoods, maintaining partnerships with organizations such as Codman Academy Charter School, the Daily Table and Healthworks Community Fitness.
“We are thrilled to have someone with such extensive leadership and medical experience – especially someone who has led another nationally qualified health center,” said Bobby MacEachern, CSHC board chair. “Patients, staff and the community deserve strong leadership to guide us through the challenges of the coming years and help us continue to provide an excellent quality of care. In Dr. Fish, we have such a leader.”
During his three years as CEO of the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC), Fish grew revenues from $65 million to $100 million annually. The center operates nine clinical sites in and around Lawrence with more than 68,000 patients and 850 employees.
Lawrence was just the latest stop in a varied career that began after he earned a biochemistry degree from Harvard and then a medical degree from Yale. After a stint working in his native Ohio at Case Western Reserve, Fish and his wife ran an internal medicine practice in rural Delaware before turning to healthcare management after he graduated from Yale.
Later in his career, he served as CEO of several health-focused companies, including Cellanyx Diagnostics, which uses artificial intelligence to assess cancer risk, and Next Stage Therapeutics, a Spanish company. He was an executive at the healthcare strategy consulting firm Fletcher Spaght, Inc. for 17 years and also worked as a senior consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.
Locally, he served as a trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which is affiliated with Bowdoin Street Health Center in Dorchester. The board role at BI-Deaconess gave Fish a formative insight into the local network of community health centers (he served as special advisor to Bowdoin Street’s executive director) and influenced his leadership roles in Lawrence and now in Dorchester.
Earlier this year, as he was considering the end of his contract at Lawrence, his network alerted him to the possibility of taking over Cotterell’s position at Codman. Fish says he started interviewing and considering the job about four months ago.
“It has been extremely helpful to be a member of the Mass League of Community Health Centers and to interact with the other operators,” he said.
Dr. Fish arrives in Dorchester at a delicate moment, as the state’s health care system prepares for a potentially catastrophic cascade of closures – including that of Dorchester’s Carney Hospital. As he settles into his new office on Washington Street, he is aware that the now impending closure of the community hospital ten blocks away could plunge him and his new team into a crisis similar to the early days of the Covid pandemic.
“We are at the epicenter of the Carney closure,” Fish told The Reporter. “The data shows that we have an average of 190 patients ending up in the Carney emergency room each month. Where are they going to go after this closure? We have to brace ourselves for the impact.”
Fish said he is consulting with other health center leaders and the state health apparatus this week to request more funding for Codman and other nearby facilities.
“It’s going to be a rush,” he said of the expected influx of new patients seeking urgent care and other needs that have so far been met at Carney. “We’re already seeing a significant increase. And part of that is in mental health care, because Carney has a large number of mental health care and beds.”
With his management and clinical experience, Fish will likely be a key partner in assessing the Carney crisis and determining next steps.
“I have a lot of experience figuring things out on the fly,” he said.
