Details Of Hospital Management Mergers Examined

HARTFORD (AP) — Ongoing state funding would be needed for some costs of a partnership between Hartford Hospital and the financially troubled University of Connecticut Health Center, according to a new report.

However, the analysis by the independent Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering also says the proposal could end the health center’s reliance on millions in state funds to cover its yearly operating deficits.

The group presented its analysis Tuesday to Connecticut lawmakers, who would have to approve the proposal before it could go into effect.

The proposal would merge management of Hartford Hospital and UConn’s John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington, a 224-bed facility considered too old and small to operate efficiently.

A new 250-bed, $475 million hospital would be built to replace Dempsey. The state would pay bonding costs for the project along with financing new equipment and some employee costs.

UConn officials have said the partnership with Hartford Hospital would offer Dempsey Hospital more.

Other details that would need to be worked out include blending the staffs of the hospitals.

Most Hartford Hospital employees are not unionized. The UConn employees, however, are state workers and most are covered by union contracts with different wages, benefits, and protections than those at the private, nonprofit hospitals.

The new report says the health center employees could remain state workers, but the state would have to pay the difference between their fringe benefit costs and those of other hospital employees — an expense estimated to cost millions of dollars annually.