Dr. Rajan Gupta joins SolutionHealth as Medical Director of Comprehensive Trauma Program
Dr. Rajan Gupta recently joined SolutionHealth as the shared medical director for its trauma program across Elliot Hospital and Southern New Hampshire Medical Center.
His role is to unify trauma services across the two communities in order to provide comprehensive trauma and acute care surgical services to Nashua, Manchester and the surrounding areas. His work will enhance quality and improve efficiencies of care at both hospitals through fostered teamwork between the trauma programs.
“A one-team model,” Gupta said. “One team; one culture.”
To that end, he has a tangible goal of earning national accreditation for Southern as a Level 3 Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. Southern is already designated as a Level 3 center by the State of NH, and this would be a great achievement. Gupta wants to earn accreditation according to the more stringent standards of the American College of Surgeons.
Catholic Medical Center is currently the only other state designated Level 3 center to receive the ACOS accreditation. Elliot Hospital is verified as a level 2 center by both the state and the American College of Surgeons along with Concord and Portsmouth Regional, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock is the state’s only Level 1 designated (and accredited) center.
“Our goal is to enhance the capability of the hospitals so that we can keep more patients local and thereby better serve our communities,” Gupta said.
Trauma centers provide acute care, including emergency surgery for everything ranging from traumatic injuries to critical cases that involve such emergencies as bowel obstructions and perforated ulcers.
“Elliot and Southern came together in 2018 to form a new healthcare system, SolutionHealth with a mission to provide the best care possible for the communities we serve with a commitment to innovative models of care and collaboration that positively impact the health and well-being of our region,” said Dr. Kevin Desrosiers, the Chief Medical Officer of Elliot Hospital Acute Care Services and VP, Medical Affairs. This is another example of how working together as one supports that mission.
Gupta is tasked with melding the trauma units that are separated by just 17 miles so they can leverage resources when necessary.
Gupta earned his M.D. at Boston University in 1991 and returned to school to earn his master’s degree in health care delivery science from Dartmouth College in 2016.
Being an acute care surgeon in trauma, emergency, general surgery, and critical care is thrilling for him. Every day presents something unexpected. However, some of his time at SolutionHealth will be spent in an administrative role, including oversight of the Southern New Hampshire trauma program and its five other surgeons.
Attracting Gupta to SolutionHealth will significantly benefit patients as well as doctors, Desrosiers said. Gupta is an excellent trauma and acute care surgeon but SolutionHealth will also take advantage of his significant leadership and administrative skills.
Gupta earned his significant reputation working and teaching at Rutgers Health/RWJBarnabas Health, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, The University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, and Maine Medical Center.
Despite his successful career at Rutgers, he and his wife decided to relocate so they can raise their young children in bucolic New England. He is an outdoorsman who enjoys camping, hiking and water sports such as sailing on lakes during the warmer months. In the winter he enjoys skiing.
“It’s a great place to live,” Gupta said. “My wife is from Canada so it’s closer to home.”
SolutionHealth offers the opportunity to live in New England and at the heart of New Hampshire’s population center stretching from Manchester to Nashua and Portsmouth.
“Ultimately, I want to help improve the health of the population in southern New Hampshire, and I think SolutionHealth is well-positioned to allow me to do that,” he said.
Learn more about Dr Rajan Gupta here!
