Cambridge Health Alliance

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Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is a health system in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston, Massachusetts's metro-north communities. It includes three hospital campuses, more than 20 primary care and specialty practices, the Cambridge Public Health Department, and the Network Health plan.

The three hospital campuses in the alliance are Cambridge Hospital, Somerville Hospital and Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett. Associated with the three hospitals are 20+ primary care clinics, serving patients in Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, Chelsea, Revere, Everett and Winthrop. The Alliance also includes a Medicaid HMO (Network Health) to serve Medicaid patients throughout the state of Massachusetts.

Cambridge Health Alliance is a regional health system and one of the Top 100 most integrated health care systems in the nation. It is also a teaching hospital, and a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and the Tufts University School of Medicine. It now offers 16 residency and training programs in a variety of disciplines including Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Podiatry, Surgery, Psychiatry, Psychology, Social Work, and Nursing.

Cambridge Health Alliance is the product of a 1996 merger of the city-owned Cambridge Hospital with private, nonprofit Somerville Hospital. In 2001, Hallmark Health sold the Whidden Memorial Hospital to Cambridge Health Alliance. All three hospitals were founded around the turn of the last century, with Somerville Hospital being the oldest.

In an unusual blend between public and private sectors, the CEO also serves as commissioner of public health for the city of Cambridge. The Alliance has a contract with the city to provide public health services for the city.

In another unusual arrangement, the Alliance is affiliated with both of the large vertically integrated systems in Boston, Partners and Caregroup, and together the three organizations jointly fund the Institute for Community Health, which conducts research on effective clinical and community health programs using the expertise of researchers from all three systems.