Proposal surfaces for UConn Health Center upgrades

Gov. M. Jodi Rell unveiled a $352 million plan for a UConn Health Network, with the goal of expanding and modernizing John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington that is affiliated with the University of Connecticut Health Center.

In addition to building a new patient tower and renovated hospital at the UConn Health Center campus in Farmington, the network would forge formal ties with Hartford Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Connecticut Children”™s Medical Center, and other health care providers.

To pay for the new hospital and related facilities in the network, $100 million of the investment is expected to come from federal funds; $25 million for design and planning will come from already approved UConn 21st Century funding; and $227 million will be in state bonding.

“This partnership will result in a state-of-the-art John Dempsey Hospital and a health network with incredible reach throughout Connecticut,” Rell said, in a prepared statement. “We will help lift the UConn schools of medicine into the top tier of academics and research and create thousands of health care jobs for our economy. The return on our investment will include a nationally recognized cancer center and specialized institutes and advanced training open to all healthcare professionals in the state.”

Rell suggested the initiative could result in 5,000 new jobs in Connecticut through a range of new and updated facilities, including:

  • a cancer center at the Farmington campus, with the goal of making it the second federally designated “Comprehensive Cancer Center” in Connecticut after one at Yale-New Haven Hospital;
  • a Primary Care Institute at St. Francis open to all healthcare professionals to develop new models of chronic-disease management and primary-care education and treatment;
  • a simulation center at Hartford Hospital to train professionals on the newest equipment and technology in simulated care settings;
  • the transfer of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to the oversight of the Connecticut Children”™s Medical Center;
  • a health disparities institute in Hartford to promote enhanced healthcare research, training and delivery to minority communities;
  • an Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences in Farmington to speed lab-to-bedside clinical trials and breakthrough medicine; and
  • a bioscience enterprise zone to offer state tax breaks to private companies that create jobs and work with UConn Health Network partners.

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