Care New England’s president and CEO, Dennis D. Keefe, announced Monday he will retire at the of the year as the hospital group prepares for a planned merger with Partners HealthCare of Massachusetts.

Keefe has led Rhode Island’s second-largest hospital group since 2011. He will work as a consultant to Care New England for up to a year after his retirement, the company said in a statement, to assist with the planned merger with Partners and the planned sale of Memorial Hospital, in Pawtucket, to Prime Healthcare, a California hospital chain.

Dr. James E. Fanale, chief operating officer of Care New England, will become the interim CEO effective Jan. 1, 2018.

Care New England, a nonprofit, is the parent company of four hospitals — Butler, Women & Infants, Kent, and Memorial hospitals- and the VNA of Care New England, and The Providence Center.

Lynn joined The Public's Radio as health reporter in 2017 after more than three decades as a journalist, including 28 years at The Providence Journal. Her series "A 911 Emergency," a project of the 2019...