The issues raised were myriad: Patients afraid of having to drive 45 minutes from Tolland County to Hartford for emergency care. Health care workers worried about losing their jobs and pensions. Concerns about moldy walls and faulty equipment at hospitals. A loss of trust in hospital care from surrounding communities.
Those were among the topics covered in more than 100 emails sent to Gov. Ned Lamont this past fall and winter from residents who rely on services from three Connecticut hospitals owned by Prospect Medical Holdings and from physicians, nurses and others who work at the facilities.
Yale New Haven Health made a bid to buy the hospitals in 2022, but the state has taken more than a year to approve the deal. YNHH also recently asked Prospect to adjust the original $435 million purchase price, after a cyberattack devastated operations at the hospitals and officials revealed that the facilities owed tens of millions of dollars to vendors and doctors who are under contract, and to the state in unpaid taxes.
Workers at Prospect’s Connecticut hospitals — Waterbury, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General — and residents from the surrounding communities urged Lamont to expedite the deal. In a series of emails sent through an online portal to the governor, they shared fears of the hospitals closing or cutting crucial services, talked about patients’ loss of trust in the care provided, raised concerns about having to travel long distances for urgent care and described worsening conditions at the facilities.
The Connecticut Mirror obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A spokeswoman for Lamont said this week the governor is aware of the concerns and is hopeful a deal will be reached soon.
“The governor understands the concerns shared by employees and those who rely on services at Waterbury, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals,” the spokeswoman, Julia Bergman, said. “The state, through the Department of Public Health, continues to actively monitor the three hospitals to ensure that patients are receiving a high standard of care.
“The private parties involved in this transaction received a draft settlement agreement from the Office of Health Strategy in October and it is incumbent on them to come to an agreement. Those negotiations continue confidentially, and the governor is hopeful a deal will be reached soon.”
[RELATED: YNHH sale ‘paramount’ to CT Prospect hospitals’ survival, CEO says]
Many of the emails came from eastern Connecticut, from employees of Eastern Connecticut Health Network, which includes Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, and from longtime residents whose children were born or relatives died at the hospitals.
“I have AFIB,” said Harmony Peters, a Manchester resident, referring to atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heartbeat. “If Manchester Hospital closes, I will have to travel to Hartford Hospital for treatment. I’m not familiar with Hartford enough to be confident that I will get there before any serious complications happen.
“Manchester is a large town and relies on the hospital to be there when a health problem comes along. I ask that you seriously consider helping Yale New Haven Health System purchase [Eastern Connecticut Health Network] and Waterbury Health so that we can have peace of mind when a crisis occurs.”
Nicholas Foucalt, lead MRI technologist at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, said he worries about paying back his student loans if the deal falls apart and the hospitals close.
“Your delay in the sale at ECHN has single handedly put so many individuals in despair,” he wrote. “For starters … I have loans from a Connecticut-based college that need to be paid. If this sale does not go through and ECHN is forced to close their doors, resulting in thousands of jobs lost, I myself will struggle with such payments. I will be out of a job, as will many others, and the health care system in central CT will be a catastrophe.
“The overcrowding of not only our ER/Floors will then overcrowd the already full ER/floors of every Hartford HealthCare facility. … What will happen when ECHN closes?”
[RELATED: All 3 CT Prospect hospitals now under one CEO; sale still pending]
Some employees and patients characterized conditions at the hospitals as troubling.
Carol Bushnell, a unit secretary at Manchester Memorial, said she at one point needed care at the facility.
“Recently at MMH, I had to be moved from a room that had a large area of bulging moldy sheetrock,” she said. “Prospect has failed the hospital. Yale will return us to nonprofit status and meet quality health care standards.”
Daniel Cotaldi, a partner in an information technology company that provided IT support to the three hospitals, said he has watched conditions “deteriorate” due to the lack of technology investments.
“We have two dedicated resources that support Waterbury Hospital as well as ECHN and had to obtain a loan to keep payroll current as Prospect has fallen behind in payment,” he wrote. “We feel that Yale’s acquisition would be extremely beneficial to modernize both health systems since they are staffed with enough IT personnel to get the job done.”
Michelle Lockhart, an emergency medical technician at Manchester Memorial, said the hospital is “drowning.”
“On a day-to-day basis, we run out of supplies that we can’t replace because Prospect hasn’t paid the vendors,” she wrote. “There are days when we run out of clean linens and Prospect’s answer is to ‘be conservative’ with our linen use. We have wheelchairs that need to be replaced or fixed because they don’t lock, which makes getting patients in and out of those wheelchairs extremely dangerous. We have beds that don’t lock correctly or steer correctly. We have EKG machines that break multiple times a week, despite constant repair.
“Our department often runs out of food to give our emergency department patients because the hospital can’t afford to keep the kitchen working at full capacity seven days a week. Because Prospect doesn’t pay our vendors on time, or appropriately, our hospital is forced to switch medical supply vendors far too often.”
One worker said the issues have caused medical students to reconsider the Prospect facilities.
Dr. Sadiq Naveed, psychiatry program director at ECHN, said delays in the sale are affecting the workforce pipeline.
“Unfortunately, due to a significant delay in [state approval], we are receiving concerns from medical students [about being] part of this organization since the future of our organization is currently in jeopardy,” he said. “Additionally, this delay doesn’t affect only the future of psychiatry, but also has implications for patient care, health care indicators, and the burden to the state.
“Last but not least, people’s employment [is] at risk and we are struggling to recruit [for the] workforce.”
The problems have caused the community to lose trust in the hospitals, some said.
“I have worked for ECHN for over 20 years,” said Colleen Galbraith, a registered nurse who works as the hospice program director. “I have always been proud of the care ECHN provided to the community. … However, the state of ECHN since the cyberattack is making it progressively more difficult. We also find the longer things drag on, the more the community is losing faith in our health system.”
Others noted that the hospitals serve many uninsured, underinsured, and at-risk patients. They worried about the gap in care that would be left if the facilities closed.
“We serve a community that is in desperate need of our services,” said Jessica Perez, a registered medical assistant for ECHN. “Most of our patients live close by and don’t have the means to travel far to obtain the services we offer locally. We are also concerned about preserving our existing jobs and pensions. Some of us have been working for ECHN for years.”
Officials with Prospect Medical would not comment directly on the concerns, but issued a statement Thursday. “The dedicated physicians, nurses and other staff at our Connecticut hospitals are committed to providing high-quality, compassionate care to every patient who comes through our doors. We fully expect this to continue following the pending Yale Health transaction.”
Tina Kumar Hyde, a spokeswoman for the state’s Office of Health Strategy, which oversees approval of the deal, said Tuesday that discussions between the parties are ongoing.
“We are actively negotiating in an attempt to come to a global agreed settlement that protects the interests of the residents of Connecticut,” she said. “OHS’ obligation is to evaluate the applications with respect to quality, access, cost effectiveness, affordability, and equity, and to ensure that any approved transactions meet the applicable statutory standards. In other words, to protect the interests of CT residents. The negotiations remain confidential, therefore OHS is unable to comment further at this time.”
Dana Marnane, a spokeswoman for Yale New Haven Health, said the parties are still trying to reach a deal.
“YNHH is focused on continuing our negotiations with OHS and Prospect to reach a mutually beneficial agreement that will allow us to invest in these three hospitals and the communities they serve,” she said.