Relatives and advocates say support for disabled patients in hospitals shouldn’t count as ‘visitors’ when they serve a vital role.
Middlesex Hospital
Medical and testing supplies grow short as COVID-19 cases jump by 42%
The number of known COVID-19 cases climbed by nearly 42% Wednesday as officials warned that some supplies are running low.
More ER docs turning to non-opioids to fight overdose epidemic
Emergency department physicians across the state are using more non-opioid treatments for conditions that historically have required powerful opioids for pain management, as they try to play a lead role in the overdose epidemic that kills on average 115 Americans every day. This change, coupled with other efforts, has resulted in a significant decrease in opioids ordered at emergency departments in at least two hospitals, Norwalk and Middlesex, from 2016 to 2017.
Small community hospitals struggle to avoid a downward spiral
Many in health care say joining larger systems is key to small hospitals’ survival. But some policymakers are wary of the trend, saying it can raise prices without necessarily improving quality. And leaders of the state’s few remaining independent community hospitals say their organizations are facing stresses that could jeopardize their viability.
Middlesex Hospital gets approval for shoreline cancer treatment
Middlesex Hospital has reached a settlement with state regulators that will allow it to put a new piece of cancer treatment equipment in its shoreline clinic in Westbrook – a proposal that drew opposition from Yale-New Haven Hospital and sparked questions about the intersection of state regulation and health care competition.
Change to hospital regulation again looms – but direction unclear
As hospitals join larger systems and critics worry about access to care, a key legislator said the time is ripe for lawmakers to revisit the way the state regulates major changes in health care. But it’s not yet clear what shape such changes will take – or whether they would leave the state with more regulation or less, a sign of sharply differing views on its role.
In shoreline cancer treatment dispute, questions about hospital competition
What began with a plan to replace an aging piece of medical equipment has turned into a dispute over the delivery of cancer care along Connecticut’s affluent shoreline. And at a time when policymakers have expressed worries about preserving competition in the state’s fast-consolidating health care market, one side has suggested the case highlights questions about competition – and the way state regulation can limit it.
As health care changes, can independent hospitals survive?
As large hospital systems have grown in Connecticut, the state now has just seven hospitals that are not part of a bigger system or in talks to join one. Are the remaining independents holding out for the right suitor? Or do they see a path forward as independent hospitals at a time when more hospital leaders are taking the opposite view?
Middlesex Hospital joins Mayo Clinic’s clinical network
Middlesex Hospital is joining a clinical care network run by the Mayo Clinic, an arrangement designed to give doctors at the Middletown hospital access to consultations with Mayo experts, hospital officials said Thursday.