Commission on Aging members invited Director of Economic and Community Development John Voket and Waterbury Health Director of Business Development Jeremy Rodorigo to speak about local health care availability struggles during their Monday, January 27 meeting.

This came after COA member Dr Brianna Garrison previously proposed the necessity for additional medical specialists in Newtown during the commission’s meeting last month, referring to Newtown as “something of a health care desert.”

Voket noted this and said that two of the four most viable regional players on the largest scale to bring medical professionals or services to either Newtown or Fairfield Hills campus are Waterbury Health and Nuvance Health.

However, Voket explained that both of those situations are currently “in flux.” He said that Waterbury Health is dealing with a prospect holdings issue, while Nuvance — which operates the closest neighboring medical center — is in the process of merging with Northwell Health of Long Island. After making a few informal phone calls, Voket said he learned that now would not be the time to try to put a full court press on Nuvance to expand here.

“They’re in the process of this merger, so once that merger is complete, then an appeal to Northwell would be the top of the list on my agenda,” Voket explained.

Voket said that there’s also Hartford HealthCare and Yale New Haven Health System, and that he would be happy to reach out to them both and remind them of the opportunities for opening some type of affiliated facility in Newtown or Fairfield Hills.

Beyond those four health care systems, Voket said that there’s also a myriad of smaller individual practices. On that note, Voket said he was happy to share that a mental health and wellness group operated by a Newtown resident is in the early stages of exploring the possibility of opening a for-profit practice in one of the duplexes on Fairfield Hills campus.

Voket said he’d consider working with either NewSylum Brewing or Newtown Parent Connection, which are both located on the Fairfield Hills campus, to eventually hold an event to host prospective medical players and show them the area. If they’d do that, Voket said it’d likely wait until spring or early summer because a potential forum featuring landlords regarding rentals and tenancy was suggested and may be held.

As of now, Voket said there’s a developer potentially interested in acquiring one or more of the duplexes once they have been re-roofed and fully remediated, and that there are some long-term, mixed-use redevelopment plans for the Shelton and Kent buildings on campus.

“My office and my charge is to keep businesses that are here in Newtown here, to help them grow, and to attract new businesses here. This opportunity that you have introduced has given me a new project to entertain ... and I’d be very happy to construct a solicitation letter to Yale and Hartford HealthCare,” Voket said.

Voket then introduced the group to Rodorigo, who he said is an emergency medical professional and has been working in or around Connecticut’s health care industries for most of his life. It’s because of this that Voket felt Rodorigo could better articulate how single family office operations to big health care systems qualify and potentially expand into communities like Newtown.

Rodorigo said that many people are shying away from opening new practices at the moment and that there are reasons why so few independent physicians are left anymore. For medical providers, Rodorigo said he thinks it’s no longer practical to be a solo provider because of information technology. He noted that electric medical records can easily be exchanged within a health care system’s network, and allows information to travel quickly between primary care providers, specialists, hospitals, and rehabilitation.

“There are just some complexities with that to where you might have to be a part of some larger system,” Rodorigo added. “You can’t maintain that on your own.”

Garrison asked him what Newtown needs to make it a more appealing location to have the specialists that neighboring communities like Southbury have. This is of particular concern to her, she notes, because the primary use of transportation services in Newtown are by residents needing to leave for medical services.

She added that having residents stay in town to go to medical services would also potentially provide some economic benefits, as people may grab lunch or shop while going to their appointment.

When a health care system like Waterbury Health considers acquiring an old practice or opening a new one, Rodorigo said they look at various factors: the number of patients the practice sees, the likelihood of those patients staying with them, and the possibility of the patients using their ancillary services such as rehabilitation, specialists, surgeons, and hospitals.

Rodorigo emphasized that these are all patient choices, and that they’d never force a patient to have to go to their hospital.

“We would never do that. We want them to think, ‘well, my physician is associated with Waterbury Hospital. Maybe I should go there,’” Rodorigo explained. “It makes things easier in terms of community, education, and information ... but those are some of the drivers.”

The other thing Rodorigo noted is that recruiting physicians and other providers is really difficult. If they don’t have a doctor in the community that wants to work for them, Rodorigo said that they then have to go find one. As for availability, Rodorigo said that they are “just not plentiful anymore,” or at the very least feel more scarce than before.

He added that this expands not just to specialists, but also primary care, family practitioners, and internal medicine.

“So if the money is not in Newtown, they’re gonna go elsewhere because they’re in high demand. They can pretty much write their own ticket,” Rodorigo said.

When asked by Voket if approved medical buildings are brought about by the facilities developer or the health care system, Rodorigo answered “both.” Rodorigo said that the biggest factor is that they want to make it convenient for patients, and that patients ideally want to have everything in one building.

“Patients want to stop at one building where they can get their blood work, imaging, and physical therapy done, especially when it comes to transportation. If I can get a ride to one place and get all those things done, it’s a lot easier than getting a ride to four separate places,” Rodorigo explained.

Garrison then asked if it’s helpful for places like health care systems to have a needs assessment of what human services people want. Rodorigo said that sort of data is “very important,” noting that Waterbury Health has done recon into the needs of a community for every new office they’ve opened. The goal, he said, is to find what people want and what the gaps are in the community.

Voket emphasized the importance of bringing specialty practices to Newtown, and suggested a potential future survey asking residents about their most pressing health care needs.

In a brief report, Director of Human Services Natalie Griffith said that she was thrilled to share they received the subrecipient agreement for the $100,000 in ARPA funds slated for senior transportation on January 24. Griffith said that she and First Selectman Jeff Capeci would review it, and that he will need to sign and notarize what can be executed.

From there, Griffith said they’ll be ready to “hit the ground running.”

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.