Peter Banko, president and CEO of Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health, has “acknowledged and apologized for the error in citations” in blog posts that are the subject of alleged plagiarism, the health system said in a statement shared with Becker’s.
Mr. Banko writes an informal, internal blog at Baystate, a five-hospital health system with approximately 13,000 employees. The blog offers “perspectives and insights on challenges and opportunities facing Baystate and healthcare providers today,” according to the health system.
The Boston Globe and The Republican, which both reviewed Mr. Banko’s blog, reported various posts contained identical or nearly identical passages to those in articles that appeared in other publications.
The newspapers cited examples including:
- Mr. Banko’s January post about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speeches to know, in which multiple paragraphs are nearly identical to sections of an NPR article published in February 2024.
- A post containing paragraphs nearly identical to a 2013 article in Forbes titled “Why Organizational Truth Has Many Shades of Gray.”
- Mr. Banko’s November 2024 blog post, in which a passage from the blog contains words or phrases that closely match content posted on ESPN.com.
The blog came to light after an employee filed an anonymous complaint on May 4 with Baystate’s compliance department over alleged plagiarism.
“It violates the legal, ethical and professional standards that he himself laid out in our code of conduct,” the employee wrote in the complaint, which they shared with The Republican. “Simply put, it is terrible leadership. Baystate employees and our patients deserve so much better than this.”
Mr. Banko declined an interview request from the Globe about his blog.
Baystate shared a statement with Becker’s on May 20, saying that Mr. Banko “has acknowledged and apologized for the error in citations in several posts to both Baystate Health employees and its board of trustees.
“While this issue is one that both he and the board take seriously, it is not reflective of his overall leadership or commitment to supporting Baystate Health through a challenging period. As with all personnel matters, the board’s review of this matter is confidential. Consistent with typical practice, should the review identify opportunities to update or strengthen policies around content development, compliance and reporting, those changes will be put in place and communicated to the team.”
Mr. Banko joined Baystate in June 2024 amid the organization’s financial struggles, after serving as president of a three-state division within Chicago-based CommonSpirit and as CEO of its former Centura Health joint venture. During his tenure, the health system has reduced its workforce by 7% since November, which he recently referenced in an interview with Becker’s when describing the most difficult choice he has had to make for the organization.
