The Connecticut Senate is expected to approve a $390 million bonding package for state-owned UConn Health to purchase and invest in struggling community hospitals, starting with the beleaguered 135-year-old Waterbury Hospital.
Edmund Gadomski is the internal union organizer with Connecticut Health Care Associates District 1199, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employers (CHCA/NUHHCE). The labor union represents Waterbury Hospital’s nursing staff and technical employees.
The employees who stuck it out “are optimistically excited,” he said. “We are greatly understaffed, we continue to lose staff. But we hope to be hiring more now. UConn’s reputation alone will move things forward.”
The excitement was reignited after a long-drawn purchase deal between Yale New Haven Health and Prospect Medical Holdings went sour, following a protracted state approval process of the sale – 16 months. Yale in a lawsuit backing out of the deal, alleged fraud and mismanagement by Prospect, the private equity-funded owner of Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital.
Connecticut Public previously reported of nursing staff shortages, rusty equipment in operating rooms, and patient abuse allegations at Waterbury Hospital.
Prospect is currently in bankruptcy proceedings at a court in Texas and several doctors are yet to be paid, including Dr. David Hill, chairperson of the Waterbury Hospital board.
“It has been challenging,” he said. “We are hoping we'll see a return on the money that's owed to us, but it all sits with the bankruptcy courts.”
Listing areas in dire need of investments, he hoped UConn would infuse money into recruiting more hospital staff.
“Number two would be information technology. Our computer systems are outdated,” he said. “And then there’s a broad equipment need in the operating room, the emergency room, and critical care units.”
Gadomski, the union organizer, agreed with Hill.
“The computers are on their last leg,” he said. “There’s not enough medical equipment. There’s not enough working medical equipment.”
UConn appeared on the scene after Gov. Ned Lamont tasked state comptroller Sean Scanlon to strengthen UConn Health, itself a financially struggling teaching hospital system expected to post a deficit of more than $60 million in 2026.
In addition to Waterbury Hospital, UConn Health is also looking to buy two other struggling community hospitals – Bristol and Day Kimball.
Scanlon said the acquisitions would enable UConn Health to grow stronger by scaling up.
“I think the taxpayers are going to get a good deal both when it comes to the bonds, but also because of the work that we’re doing to revitalize these hospitals and make sure that they are there for the people of Connecticut when they need them,” he said.
Some lawmakers ahead of a house vote on the bonding bill Wednesday, said the state shouldn’t be buying up hospitals. They said hospitals wouldn’t need rescuing if the state hadn’t delayed approving prior hospital purchase deals, lowered hospital taxes and increased Medicaid reimbursements.
“Here we are,” said State Rep. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato, a Republican representing Bristol. “Now we've come up with the solution to a problem that we caused.”
The House passed the legislation with bipartisan support, putting the patient community front and center.
State Rep. Larry Butler, a Democrat from Waterbury, spoke at the state Capitol ahead of the House vote and said Waterbury Hospital hospital serves more than 250,000 people each year, who are cared for by more than 2,000 employees.
“A lot of them could have left to seek a better working environment and stability,” he said. “But to the credit of all those people who work at Waterbury hospital facing this adversity, they stayed.”
UConn Health is the lead bidder for the hospital and the state will expedite the approval process. Waterbury Hospital employees will not become employees of the state – like at UConn Health. And should UConn Health sell the hospital in the future, the proceeds would go to the state general fund.
Hill, the doctor at Waterbury Hospital, said he has been in practice with his pulmonology group there since 1997, and he’s seen it all.
“We weathered a pandemic, we've weathered Prospect Medical Holdings, and we're looking forward to a promising future with UConn Health,” he said.
