Predicting a $20 million deficit this year at John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington, the University of Connecticut is waiting on the release in mid-March of a legislative commission findings that could determine whether the Connecticut General Assembly will free up resources to save the teaching facility.
Even as he awaits the commission findings, new UConn President Michael Hogan said he has been in discussions with other Hartford area hospitals about potential collaborations. That could help Dempsey Hospital share costs and generate revenue by including it in a larger network of hospitals that share resources ”“ not unlike Yale-New Haven Hospital”™s affiliations with Bridgeport Hospital and Greenwich Hospital.
Hogan described the discussions as productive, but said he had nothing concrete to show for them as of mid-February.
“Dempsey is challenged and has been for some time,” Hogan said, in remarks last month to a Connecticut General Assembly committee. “It has a diminishing effect ”¦ to do the kind of medical research in the area of medical science that can put not only UConn on the map, but advance the frontiers of medical science and also serve as a very helpful engine for economic development in the region and across the state.
“To the extent that it is challenged, I think, acts as a weight on the university”™s reputation,” Hogan added.
Hogan checked off an array of “structural” problems facing the hospital including:
Ӣ paying fringe benefits for state workers 40 percent above that of private hospitals;
Ӣ low Medicare reimbursement rates;
Ӣ a money-losing ward for psychiatric patients; and
Ӣ an aging facility.
“Dempsey Hospital is an old building,” Hogan said. “It”™s tired, it”™s worn out, and it”™s not particularly well suited for modern patient care.”
Another option would be to generate tuition revenue by expanding the size of the medical school, which will matriculate 80 first-year students next year from a field of 2,800 applicants.
“When I try to sell a hospital with only 108 beds that is 35 years old and the operating rooms are too small ”¦ and they then look at the opportunities at UMass or in Boston or New York, we don”™t remain competitive,” said Dr. Peter J. Decker, dean of UConn”™s medical school. “If I can”™t recruit top-flight faculty going forward that will have a trickle-down effect on the quality of the students I recruit into my medical school and ”¦ it”™s going to have a downgrading quality in general.”
