SPRINGFIELD — When shift change rolls around at the Baystate Medical Center, across from the organization’s corporate offices, Peter Banko can be found sitting on a bench nearby. When physicians, nurses or other staff notice him there, they often ask what he’s waiting for, to which Banko replies, “I’ve been waiting to talk to you.”

For the past few weeks, Banko has been enjoying getting back to the “grassroots, hands-on” work that he loves as he gets to know the Baystate Health community while conducting a “100-day listening tour” as the organization’s new president and CEO. After leading organizations “more than double the size” of Baystate, Banko said it’s not only a relief to spend less time driving from place to place, but that he also feels like he’s “having fun for the first time in a few decades.”

The New Jersey native has worked in health care throughout his entire life, serving in CEO positions for about two decades. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration at the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in health services from Cornell University. During his time pursuing higher education, Banko said he had several mentors whose encouragement led him to where he is today.

As the son of two elementary school teachers, he said that the job of CEO was “never something accessible.” Rather, it was something he happened upon and excelled at.

“My advice would be, if your goal is to become a CEO, it probably won’t happen. If your goal is something else, then it might happen,” he laughed.

While smaller than Banko’s previous organizations, Baystate Health dominates the western Massachusetts health care sphere. With a workforce of more than 13,000 and more than 980 beds across five hospitals in Springfield, Greenfield, Westfield and Palmer, Baystate handles more than 1.8 million outpatient visits, 180,000 emergency visits, 37,000 surgeries and 4,000 births every year.

Because of the organization’s large community impact, Banko has already noticed what he calls a “sense of loyalty and pride” among those who work at Baystate and those they serve.

“People were born here, they grew up here. … Each individual feels like it’s theirs,” Banko said.

In short, it’s exactly the kind of change he’d been looking for. And while every organization comes with its challenges, Banko has found Baystate’s difficulties neither surprising nor discouraging.

“I was looking for opportunities where I could spend my last seven to 10 years having an impact,” said Banko, 57. “It’s been great, I’m having a lot of fun. ... Most of our challenges are ones that every other hospital in the state has, but we’re poised to fix those problems, which is something I think a lot of other hospitals can’t say.”

Listening tour, challenges

Banko will meet with Baystate’s leadership board at the conclusion of his listening tour to discuss everything he’s heard, which he keeps on a “huge running spreadsheet,” and figure out how to proceed.

One unsurprising challenge he’s noticed is one that he’s faced throughout his life in health care — a shortage of health care providers nationally, which often leads to accessibility struggles. But increasing health care accessibility has long been a pillar of Baystate’s ethos, and Banko believes the organization’s academic ties uniquely situate it to effectively do so.

Each year, Baystate hosts about 800 medical students, residents and fellows, as well as almost 1,200 nursing students and more than 400 allied health students, who will go on to fill gaps in the health care field.

In particular, Banko said the Greenfield Family Medicine Residency through the UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate is “a gift.” This year, Baystate got to keep several of the graduating physicians from the program, based out of the Greenfield Family Medicine practice in Franklin County.

“From my perspective, it’s huge for Greenfield and beyond,” Banko said.

Baystate has discussed potentially expanding this program, along with the Springfield residency program, in the future. In addition, Baystate has worked at recruiting entry-level workers through high school outreach and apprenticeship programs.

New health center

Baystate is also poised to welcome a new, 90,000-square-foot community health center to Springfield through a partnership with MassMutual, which will donate 10 acres of its 100-acre Springfield campus for the new the facility that Baystate will own, build and operate. Along with the land, valued at $5 million, the life insurance company will also provide financing. The MassMutual Foundation is also donating $5 million over five years to the project, which has an estimated total cost of $45 to $50 million.

The center is expected to provide more comprehensive, centralized care to the Pioneer Valley, which Banko said will “go beyond just basic physical care.”

Eventually, four of Baystate’s existing health centers — the Mason Square Neighborhood Health Center, Baystate High Street Health Center, Baystate High Street Pediatrics and Wesson Women’s Clinic — will be consolidated into the new center, which will provide them not only a central location, but more spacious and updated accommodations.

These existing centers serve 125,000 patient visits annually, and officials expect patient visits at the new center to hit 145,000 by 2028. The bigger and better health center is expected to provide some relief around the long wait times that some patients have been experiencing, and Baystate will finalize plans for the center based on community conversations and needs. Construction is expected to begin in 2025 and be completed in 2027.

Pandemic recovery

But that isn’t the only ongoing change that Banko has inherited. Baystate has sold its lab operations and is pending state approval on a deal to sell its insurer Health New England to Point32Health, which Banko said may provide financial stability in the wake of financial and workforce shocks suffered by health care systems after the pandemic.

Banko said the sale of Health New England will “free up time and resources for other projects in the community,” but that they “don’t expect any disruptions” for the insurer with the transition.

Following Banko’s listening tour, he hopes to craft a strategic plan that will take stock of the organization’s financial situation, as well as some of the infrastructure needs at various sites, such as updated emergency and surgery facilities at Baystate Noble in Westfield, and developing the largely bare floors at the Springfield site set aside for future endeavors.

In the meantime, Banko is busy getting to know the people that make the hospital system’s community so unique — from the individuals that recognize him at Big Y and ask “How are things going at the hospital?” to the organization’s “informal leaders” that he hopes will advise him and serve as liaisons to those serving Baystate’s mission on the ground each day.

Overall, Banko said the shift in leadership has been “smooth,” largely because his predecessor Mark Keroack orchestrated the change so that he and Banko would overlap for roughly a month, allowing Banko to learn the ropes from him firsthand. He also noted that Keroack is still “around in the community” should he need any advice.

“People choose to be here. … They choose to be here because there’s something different here,” Banko said. “For me, it’s all less data and more qualitative, talking to folks. Where the energy is is where things will move.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.