Hugh Flanagan

Hugh Flanagan, MD, has been named the inaugural executive medical director of Surgical and Procedural Services for Brigham and Women’s Health Care, effective Aug. 1.

In this role, Flanagan will serve as the physician-administrative leader for surgical and procedural (“peri-procedural”) areas across BWHC, including the hospital’s main campus, BWFH and ambulatory clinics in Foxborough and Chestnut Hill. He will partner with senior administrative and nursing leadership in perioperative services at BWH and BWFH to ensure clinical, operational, administrative and financial success.

A skilled BWH anesthesiologist, Flanagan will continue to practice clinically approximately 20 percent of the time.

“We are exceedingly fortunate that Dr. Flanagan has agreed to assume this critically important leadership role, and we know that colleagues from surgical and procedural services will join us in committing to work closely with him as he helps lead our peri-procedural enterprise to even greater size, strength, depth and impact,” said James Rathmell, MD, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine.

Flanagan began his career at BWH in 1980 after completing residencies in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and in anesthesiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. He has managed the Operating Rooms and Post-Anesthesia Care Unit as medical director for nearly two decades.

Flanagan has also served on committees focused on quality assurance, ethics, patient care assessment, risk management, and OR and PACU expansion and capacity management, among others.

Flanagan is also a devoted educator in post-anesthesia care, airway management and care of trauma patients.