As mounting losses and efforts to become part of a larger health care system based in Boston commanded the spotlight, without fanfare a new level of service started at Kent Hospital last week with the first emergency coronary angioplasty.

The effort to bring the lifesaving procedure to Kent, saving patients suffering from a heart attack valuable minutes from the trip to hospitals in Providence, was initiated more than 15 years ago by Dr. Robert Baute. Finally, with the opening of a second cardio catheterization lab in August 2015, the hospital started performing the procedure on an elective basis.

As of Monday, several emergency procedures had been performed at Kent. A total of 280 elective procedures had been performed since August of 2015 “without any major complications,” Dr. Michael Dacey, Kent president and COO, reported Monday.

He said of patients requiring acute cardiac intervention, history shows about half arrive at the hospital by ambulance while the balance drive themselves. As of last week, Kent started performing emergency procedures on those arriving at the hospital during the day. He said this is giving Kent the ability to transition to 24/7 operations once EMTs start delivering patients to Kent.

“We want to make sure we have more than enough resources,” he said.

When fully operational, Dacey said Kent would have five interventional cardiologists. It now has three.

Dr. David Williams of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who performed the fifth ever cardiac angioplasty, oversees the quality of the Kent program

“This is a real big boon to patients,” Dacey said of the program.

Dacey said Friday that the emergency procedure should help the bottom line, although it is not being looked at in those terms. Kent is a member hospital of Care New England that disclosed last week second quarter losses of $40 million. Kent losses were $1.4 million, with the major losses occurring at Women & Infants at $14.3 million and Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket at $11.9 million. The week prior CNE took steps to lay off a number of staff at all levels, but mostly at Women & Infants and Memorial.

The second quarter losses were released shortly after Care New England announced it signed a letter of intent to be acquired by HealthCare Partners of Boston. Under a separate agreement, Prime Healthcare Foundation that operates Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket would acquire Memorial.

Ironically, it was Kent’s relationship with a member of Partners – the group that is now looking to acquire CNE – that opened the path to a 24/7 cardiac catheterization lab at Kent.

Kent and CNE entered into a clinical affiliation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Boston in 2013. Under this partnership and with Health Services Council approval, Kent went ahead with one cardiac catheterization lab, starting with the performance of elective procedures while a second lab was built at a cost of $4.5 million. With the second lab, the hospital became capable of taking on an emergency case should a lab be in the midst of performing an elective case.

It is estimated somewhere between 80 and 100 emergency procedures will be performed annually at Kent.

Overall, a combination of factors combines to cause the losses being felt by CNE.

Dacey said that, generally, hospitals are seeing fewer patients, which is a positive because the population is healthier but serves to work against hospital finances. Women & Infants is particularly hard hit, as women are experiencing fewer pregnancy complications, as are newborns.

“The payer mix is big,” said Dacey, explaining that greater coverage by Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island with lower reimbursement rates than other insurers has hurt. He also said Neighborhood’s processing of claims has been a problem.

In a statement released last Friday, CNE spokesman James Beardsworth said, “Today’s reported loss of approximately $26 million for the quarter further tells the story we have been very candid about – decreases in patient volume, a worsening payer mix, changing health care needs of the population, and extremely restrictive reimbursement caps in place through the state Health Insurance Commissioner’s office. Further, from a public health perspective, there are fewer sick and premature infants, which is great news, but under our current payment model it represents a significant financial challenge.”

Asked if the latest report is a harbinger to another round of layoffs, Dacey said, “You can only reduce so much.”

As for Kent, Dacey doesn’t see the situation as dire as it is for Women & Infants and Memorial. He put the hospital census at 220 occupied beds on Friday out of a total of 350, which is down from levels 10 years ago.

Looking at losses for the first half of the fiscal year, Dacey said, “We’re working hard to reverse that.” He thought it possible by the end of the year – at least at Kent.