Headlines
As published as an OpEd in the New Britain Herald, February 17, 2009.
The Right Plan at the Right Time
By Laurence A. Tanner, president and chief executive officer at The Hospital of Central Connecticut
Despite the current economic problems in our state, the residents
of Connecticut have a timely opportunity. Through an unprecedented
partnership between the University of Connecticut and area
hospitals, we have a unique chance to significantly enhance our
healthcare education and delivery system, and to once and for all,
overcome the 30-year-old controversy surrounding UConn’s John
Dempsey Hospital.
Under the plan, a new University Hospital would be created on two
campuses, Farmington and Hartford. A state-of-art-the hospital would
be built in Farmington to replace the aging and ailing John Dempsey
Hospital, which unfortunately was constructed in a way that makes
renovations unfeasible. There would also be renovations at Hartford
Hospital, but the total number of beds at Farmington would remain
unchanged.
This would create a facility of just the right size for our
region—neither too large, nor too small. There is substantial
financial benefit to the state in this approach, because the result
would be an 1,100-bed hospital 21st century teaching hospital for
half the cost to the state as replacing the 250-bed Dempsey
facility. The Hartford plan also offers a solution to the ongoing
problem with Dempsey’s burgeoning deficit, because Hartford Hospital
would assume financial risk exposure, capping the state’s exposure
and easing the burden on taxpayers.
In addition, it would bring stability to the University’s School
of Medicine. The uncertainty surrounding Dempsey’s future poses
difficulties in recruitment and retention of top-notch faculty at
the school. We cannot let indecision erode the quality of our
state’s medical education facility.
The plan also gives Connecticut a chance to reinforce its
position as “the place” to practice medicine. Despite our long,
proud history in this regard, other areas of the country are luring
away young physicians and researchers, in part, due to attractive
lifestyles and lower costs of living and doing business. However, we
know that physicians who receive their medical training here--
including internships, residencies and exposure to physicians who
practice here---are more likely to stay. This is critical because it
helps to ensure an adequate supply of physicians for our state
residents in the future.
The option of renovating the existing physical facility at
Dempsey has been explored, but rejected because it is simply
unfeasible and extremely costly. And closing Dempsey without a
replacement hospital is not a good option. The surrounding area
hospitals have some of the highest occupancy rates in the nation,
and just do not have the bed capacity to absorb Dempsey patients
without capital costs to build or recapture beds.
Five area hospitals, including our own Hospital of Central
Connecticut, are an integral part of the plan’s proposed education
and research collaborative, which is expected to bring in tens of
millions of dollars in new research grants, tripling the research
funding UConn’s Health Center now receives.
In addition, consider the potential for creation of thousands of
new jobs coming from research and construction of the replacement
hospital. It would truly stimulate our economy.
The proposal offers the right solutions, at a critical time, for problems that have plagued our healthcare delivery system for decades. It give us the potential to establish a nationally recognized biomedical research hub right here in Central Connecticut. The collaboration and cooperation between area hospitals will also be unprecedented, resulting in better healthcare for the people of our region.