Medical Hospital Creates, Fills New Behavioral Health Director Position

Cleveland’s St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, the city’s sole downtown hospital, has created a new position — chief clinical officer of behavioral health and addiction medicine — and hired Michael Biscaro to fill the role.

Biscaro, who officially started Monday, comes from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, where he held a variety of roles.

The creation of the new position comes as health care providers throughout the Buckeye State are tasked with serving more people with behavioral health issues, especially those with opioid use disorder (OUD).

In the new role, Biscaro is responsible for improving patient access to several of the hospital’s services. That includes detox and outpatient programs; inpatient adult and geropsychiatry; and its psychiatric emergency department, which is only one of two such EDs in Ohio.

Biscaro will also lead the hospital’s behavioral health and addiction services clinical teams.

Biscaro’s past positions with VA Northeast Ohio include clinical psychologist, program director and team leader for its Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center.

He most recently served as service line manager for peer support services for VA Northeast Ohio before being hired at St. Vincent Charity. Additionally, he is currently director of Joseph’s Home, the only Ohio provider of medical services exclusively to homeless individuals.

“By welcoming Dr. Biscaro to St. Vincent, we’re gaining a national expert in the field of modernizing, innovating and integrating behavioral health practices,” Janice Murphy, president and CEO of St. Vincent Charity, said in a press release. “His experiences make him uniquely qualified to lead our program into the future and continue building on our successes in quality, evidence-based services.”