Rick Gregg
Rick Gregg’s commitment to Community Health Programs stretches back 25 years, when he became a patient of Lee Family Practice. Back then, before the independent practice merged with CHP, its doctors were caring for patients and running the business. This type of demanding double duty prompted several Berkshire County practices to join CHP for administrative support in the coming years. As a management consultant, Rick advised the Lee practice on managing and expanding, ahead of joining with CHP.
Rick joined the CHP board in 2016 with a unique lens: he was a CHP patient, with extensive experience in healthcare, and married to a local psychiatrist. He was (and is) director of programs in healthcare administration at Suffolk University in Boston. He now chairs the CHP board’s education committee and is a member of the strategic planning committee. He is also a generous donor.
“Management is the invisible side of healthcare—from medical records to billing and insurance issues, personnel, facilities and other operations that patients don’t see when they come for a visit,” says Rick, who lives in Lenox.
Using Covid-19 as an example of good management, Rick noted CHP’s rapid adoption of telehealth, parking lot exams and a wide swath of logistical adjustments.
“Everyone was able to keep caring for patients because of support from CHP’s practice managers,” he says. “We’ve all paid great honor to front-line caregivers, as we should, but I would expand recognition to the managers behind the scenes.”
Rick’s financial gifts to CHP are inspired by CHP’s broad community role and its equal focus on both health and social services support for families and individuals.
“And by collaborating with many local partners, CHP is not standing alone,” he says. “The leadership team does a great job partnering in the community to provide valuable services to the people of the Berkshires.”