Sheppard Pratt Taps Trivedi for Top Post, Succeeding Sharfstein

Harsh Trivedi, M.D., M.B.A., currently the chief executive officer of Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital in Nashville, will become president and chief executive officer of the Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore on July 1, succeeding former APA President Steven Sharfstein, M.D.

Sheppard Pratt

“Sheppard Pratt is one of the few positions I would consider leaving Vanderbilt for,” Trivedi told Psychiatric News. “But to lead Sheppard Pratt and make meaningful improvements in the care of psychiatric patients across the country is not an opportunity to let go by.”

In Sharfstein’s nearly 25 years as president and CEO, Sheppard Pratt expanded to include two freestanding psychiatric hospitals, 12 special education residential and day schools, and a number of outpatient and telepsychiatry sites in Maryland.

Sharfstein will become president emeritus and will continue to treat patients (Psychiatric News, June 19, 2015).

“Harsh is respected in the field both for his work in behavioral health as a psychiatrist associated with Harvard, Brown, and Vanderbilt universities and as an administrator,” said Sharfstein in a statement. “He is absolutely the right person for the job, and we’re excited to see him bring new energy and vision to the health system.”

Trivedi in turn praised Sharfstein’s “visionary leadership” at Sheppard Pratt and his place at “the forefront of good psychiatric care.”

Trivedi was a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital and then director of adolescent services at Bradley Hospital in Providence before moving to Vanderbilt in 2010.

He has maintained a clinical practice throughout his career and will continue to do so at Sheppard Pratt. Success as a hospital CEO demands retaining a clinical perspective in the midst of administrative duties, he said.

Trivedi also sees a broader picture of his role at Sheppard Pratt.

“As health care reform evolves, we need a greater emphasis on the integration of psychiatric services with population health while better measuring outcomes,” he said.

One concern he hopes to address as the head of a specialized psychiatric system is the challenge of Medicaid’s Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion, which affects Sheppard Pratt’s accessibility for patients.

“We want to continue providing excellent clinical services across the community while considering how to provide compassionate, patient-centered, evidence-based care across all types of treatment settings,” he said.

Trivedi earned his M.D. at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and his M.B.A. at the University of Tennessee. He is a consulting editor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America and chair of the APA Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing. He also serves on the American Hospital Association Governing Council for Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Services.

“Given the many things going on in the field, including the challenges of health care reform, this is a wonderful opportunity to think about what the future of our field is, as well as really guiding the path forward so we can provide better psychiatric services across the nation,” he said. ■