SHARON, Conn. — Sharon Hospital, already under scrutiny for efforts to close its maternity ward now looking to close its intensive care unit.
Wednesday marked day two of virtual hearings with state officials about the hospital’s plan. Hospital officials have been defending a proposal to consolidate services at Sharon Hospital, saying if they don’t act the hospital could eventually close.
Doctors, nurses, community members have pushed back since Sharon Hospital announced plans to close its maternity ward last year.
“Any effort to stop those kinds of services ought to be reviewed by the appropriate state agency. If it is reviewed properly, they’ll be stopped,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal Wednesday at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
Sharon Hospital is owned by Nuvance and its CEO John Murphy says it’s seeking to consolidate services but the proposal wouldn’t hurt the care it can provide. Murphy says the hospital will “Still provide inpatient services, to continue to keep those people employed, to provide outpatient services but to do it responsibly and cost efficiently.”
The hospital is proposing to centralize critical care that’s currently offered in the ICU and surgical units into a new “Progressive Care Unit.” For two days, officials have defended the move in front of the state Office of Health Strategy known as OHS.
“We can’t keep losing $25 million a year, so we are trying to reshape the services in a responsible way,” Murphy said.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the hospital said in part, “The hospital will continue offering the same level of critical care services currently offered to our community, with the same staff, in a centralized location within the hospital.”
But members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation are now joining voices of opposition.
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Congresswoman Jahana Hayes wrote a letter to Office of Health Strategy calling on it to reject Sharon Hospital’s plan to close its ICU and reduce medical services in any way.
Blumenthal says the proposal is deeply unfair and also bad for that part of our state.
FOX61 reached out to OHS for an update on where the plan stands but it did not respond to our request Wednesday afternoon.
A full copy of the letter sent by Senators Blumenthal and Murphy and Congresswoman Hayes reads as follows:
Dr. Deirdre Gifford
Executive Director
Office of Health Strategy
450 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06106
RE: APPLICATION FOR CONSOLIDATION OF CRITICAL CARE SERVICES AT
SHARON HOSPITAL: DOCKET NO. 22-32504-CON
Dear Dr. Gifford:
We strongly urge rejection of Vassar Health Systems’ (Nuvance) application to reduce the medical services provided at Sharon Hospital. While we understand the challenges facing the operation of rural hospitals in Connecticut, reducing or eliminating a wide range of critical acute care services at the one hospital within reasonable driving distance of many residents in Northwest Connecticut is untenable.
The Office of Health Strategy (OHS) must ensure that Sharon Hospital remains a mainstay of medical care for the sparsely populated section of Connecticut. OHS must carefully and critically scrutinize the application and consider the testimony provided by the petitioners and the impact of any reduction in medical services on those who live in the area and depend – with their lives – on reasonable access to vital health care services.
OHS should take into consideration the potential detrimental health impact on patients of being transferred from Sharon Hospital to other facilities if certain medical services are no longer available at Sharon Hospital as proposed in the application.
The Northwest Connecticut community strongly supports a viable Sharon Hospital that provides a comprehensive range of health services. We urge OHS to listen to the community and reject this application.
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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