The new owner of Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General today said progress has been made, since taking over the hospitals at the start of the year.
The two hospitals have been returned to nonprofit status under Hartford Healthcare’s ownership and received a number of upgrades, after allegations that the facilities fell into disrepair under the previous ownership by a for-profit, out-of-state, private equity-funded company called Prospect Medical Holdings.
Speaking at a press conference marking the progress, Manchester Memorial Nurse Manager Matthew Green said the hospital suffered under Prospect.
“We became part of an organization that did not know our hospital, did not know our community, and they did not know Connecticut,” Green said. “Investments waned, services declined, we even saw the land directly under the hospital sold from us.”
Prospect Medical Holdings eventually filed for bankruptcy.
“But through all that, there was something they could not take. They could not take the people,” Green said.
Because a cyber attack had also crippled the hospitals under the previous ownership, Hartford Healthcare executive Adam Steinberg said managing cyber security risk was one of his top priorities when he took leadership of Manchester Memorial in January.
“There's always risk, but we're at a level of confidence where we are anywhere else in Hartford Healthcare,” Steinberg said.
Over the last six months, Hartford Healthcare officials said they added medical staff and transitioned to a new electronic medical records system called EPIC. 1,600 computers have been replaced.
“We have been investing in our facilities, and in how we take care of our patients,” Steinberg said. “All the way to the detail of our IV poles. When you walk around the hospital, all of those IV poles are brand new.”
