UConn Trying New Approach To ResolveCash-StrappedHealthCenter

By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, The Hartford Courant, October 22, 2009

With a fresh set of players and too little support in the legislature for a new hospital, the University of Connecticut is looking for a collaborative solution to resolve the long-running problem of its cash-strapped health center in Farmington.
The new strategy marks a change from 2007 when UConn broke off talks with area hospitals in a go-it-alone strategy and then tried unsuccessfully to get the legislature to approve the new-hospital plan.
Led by new board Chairman Larry McHugh, UConn is trying to negotiate a compromise solution.
In a high-level meeting this week, the top leaders of UConn, HartfordHospital, and St.FrancisHospital and MedicalCenter met for 4½ hours to discuss the matter. Before them was a detailed, 26-page outline of St. Francis' vision for the future of JohnDempseyHospital and the UConnHealthCenter.
The meeting also included business leaders such as Ramani Ayer, outgoing chief executive officer of The Hartford Financial Services Group; former United Technologies Corp. Chief Operating Officer Karl Krapek; and former state budget director William Cibes, who are each trying to help the hospitals find a solution.
UConn has been unable to persuade Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the state legislature to spend nearly $500 million for a new hospital it has sought for years.
While lacking the power to dictate what UConn should do with its 224-bed hospital, St. Francis — which has opposed spending taxpayers' money on a new UConn hospital — is strong enough politically at the state Capitol that it can help derail the idea.
St. Francis has been asked at various times for a counter-proposal on how to improve the UConn medical school. The proposal unveiled behind closed doors this week was the result of those requests.
Some Capitol insiders immediately viewed the St. Francis proposal as essentially a plan to shut down Dempsey.
But in an interview with The Courant Wednesday, St. Francis CEO Christopher Dadlez said that was not the case.
"We're not espousing the closing of Dempsey," Dadlez said.
The document refers to a "repurposed/renewed Dempsey" that would feature "same-day and specialty services, a modernized site for urgent care, and increased research capacity."
The report, stamped "confidential" but obtained by The Courant, states: "We see no reason for the state to fund replacement of a full-service, acute-care hospital in a small suburb during an economic crisis. State funding should go to a plan that can cost-effectively achieve the shared vision of a great medical school and a great medical enterprise."
Dadlez said the 26-page report could be misconstrued.
"It's a disservice to quote the document," Dadlez said. "It was used as a talking point."
St. Francis favors strengthening the research components of the multi-faceted UConnHealthCenter, which includes the UConn medical school, dental school, graduate research operation, and the Dempsey hospital. But Dadlez said he believes UConn has been focusing too much on the hospital and not enough on improving research, which he says is known in the health industry as the most important component for establishing a top-tier medical school.
Dadlez credited McHugh with fostering a spirit of collaboration — in a heavily lobbied, high-stakes issue that has pitted hospitals against each other and split legislators into factions for years.
"Larry McHugh has a lot to do with us being at the table," Dadlez said. "He wants to solve this issue."
In the most recent attempt on behalf of UConn, Democratic legislators in a recent special session tried to allocate $50 million as "seed money" in a step toward planning a new hospital that is part of the plan for a collaboration between HartfordHospital and UConn. But multiple Senate Democrats balked at the idea, and it was dropped, likely pushing off any resolution until the next legislative session, which starts in February.
McHugh has worked on the matter at the request of Rell, who appointed McHugh in July as chairman of the UConn trustees.
"My style is to be more inclusive and get more people involved and get a consensus," McHugh said Wednesday. "That wasn't necessarily the point of view before. The governor has had me look at this to try to get some consensus because it had been fractured."
McHugh is part of wholesale changes at UConn from the days when the university tried the go-it-alone strategy that failed at the legislature. Since then, UConn has a new board chairman, a new president, a new dean of the medical school, and other new leaders.
McHugh described the St. Francis proposal as "very interesting" but said he is looking to maintain at least as many beds and employees as Dempsey has now.
"I'm not looking to lose any of the jobs that are at UConn," he said. "We're not looking to downsize. In the future, we're looking to up-size."
McHugh is also concerned about the ongoing financial troubles at the health center. The center has been bailed out by the state legislature four times since 2000 — under two governors. Rell's budget office has said that the state cannot keep bailing out the health center indefinitely, and McHugh agrees.
"You can't constantly be going back to the legislature for $20 million, $30 million, $40 million," he said.
HartfordHospital is still pursuing the plan it proposed jointly with UConn in February, said Jim Blazar, the hospital's senior vice president and chief strategy officer. That proposal called for a new hospital — built with state funds — to replace Dempsey, and a merger between HartfordHospital and the health center that would create a two-campus "university hospital" in Farmington and Hartford.
"We're committed to the proposal that we submitted and we're committed to the School of Medicine, helping it to be stronger for the region and for the state," Blazar said.
"We're committed to the operation of JohnDempseyHospital and the building of a new JohnDempseyHospital that will be more efficient and be able to meet the needs of both the community and teaching obligations for teaching health care into the next century. We're committed to that proposal," Blazar said.
Despite the long hours and multiple meetings, McHugh said he believes he is only halfway there. But Tuesday's meeting with top hospital leaders made him believe that the train is moving in the right direction as each meeting moves closer toward a consensus.
"As an old coach, I'm at halftime," McHugh said. "As an ex-coach, you're always positive, and you go to win."
Courant staff writer Arielle Levin Becker contributed to this report.

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