Day Kimball Hospital announces tie to UConn Health, but Waterbury Hospital purchase to come first

CT Examiner – Tuesday, November 18, 2025
By Brian Scott-Smith

PUTNAM – The future of rural healthcare in the northeast of the state has been thrown a lifeline by UConn Health.

Day Kimball Healthcare is one of the last remaining independent healthcare providers in the state, in existence for 131 years, and for the last several years in a financial crisis.

The small healthcare provider based in the town of Putnam, serves residents in Windham county and towns on the state lines the hospital shares with Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

House Bill, 8001 was passed by the State House and Senate just a week ago during the special session, and now sits on Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk waiting to be signed into law. The legislation will allow UConn Health to seek new partnerships in-state to help expand its services.

“We’ve worked hard over many years and have been down the path towards partnership with several other organizations and those have not come to fruition,” said Day Kimball CEO Kyle Kramer at a press conference announcing the partnership.

“We’re very excited that the relationship with the University of Connecticut health system is something that we can now talk about openly, and while this is our destination, there’s still a lot of work yet to be done, but we’re excited that there is formally a pathway to get there,” Kramer added.

Day Kimball Healthcare serves a smaller community than most of the state’s other hospitals and many patients are either Medicaid or Medicare recipients — a significant financial burden given reimbursement rates for both programs.

Day Kimball also serves an older community including a large number of veterans.

The hospital had attempted partnerships in the past, including one with the Catholic health system, Covenant Health, which would have limited reproductive health services, said State Sen. Mae Flexer, a Democrat representing several towns in the immediate area.

“Because of the religious affiliation of that other organization, as everyone in this room knows, that partnership did not move forward and frankly, given that we’re here today, I’m very grateful that it didn’t move forward,” said Flexer.

But despite upbeat news about Day Kimball, there are still a lot of details to work out.

First, the UConn Health Center Joint Venture Initiative is also looking to acquire Waterbury Hospital, whose current owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, has filed for bankruptcy.

State Rep. Pat Boyd, a Democrat representing several other towns in the area, chimed in at the press conference about the upcoming auction for Waterbury Hospital.

“Through an auction, right? So, they’re going to own it when the auction is closed,” said Boyd.

That auction closed Monday, and UConn was named the winning bidder at $13 million, with no other offers made by the Friday deadline.

A Texas bankruptcy court approved the bid on Tuesday, giving UConn the greenlight to start the process of seeking state approval under an emergency “Certificate Of Need” that could see an ownership transfer in about 60 days.

Hartford Healthcare and the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy held an emergency public hearing Tuesday to discuss the transfer of ownership both of Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville Hospital after Hartford Healthcare won its bid on Monday for the two former Prospect Medical owned facilities.

Another wrinkle in the Waterbury Hospital story is the fact that the hospital no longer owns its buildings or land, which were sold as part of a $1.55 billion deal between Prospect Medical Holdings and a company called Medical Properties Trust in 2019 that included all three Prospect owned hospitals in Connecticut, along with hospital properties in California and Pennsylvania.

Medical Properties Trust has paid the city of Waterbury just over $7.5 million to settle property tax debt for the hospital, it’s unknown whether UConn Health will have to negotiate with MPT on a separate deal to buy back land and buildings on the Waterbury Hospital site.

CT Examiner has reached out to MPT and UConn Health for clarification on the building and lands rights issue, but so far have received no reply from either organization.

When pressed for how much money would be invested in Day Kimball, Kramer did not mention a figure but did say the partnership with UConn would give them access to resources they will need to modernize.

Day Kimball recently received a “D” grade from the non-profit health organization, Leapfrog, which provides twice yearly safety grade reports, but Kramer said the grade was not indicative of the care they provide now and they are requesting Leapfrog to re-evaluate the hospital and its grade.

One area that Kramer said would make a big difference is the modernization of their electronic health records system, “an investment in Epic [an electronic health record system used by many hospitals] would be a crippling, if not completely disabling investment on our own,” said Kramer.

If and when the partnership goes ahead for Day Kimball, which is likely to be sometime in 2026, the hospitals current relationship with Yale New Haven Health will come to an end, according to Kramer.

“Our collaboration with Yale New Haven Health is largely related to supply chain and material acquisitions,” he explained. “We would still have a similar opportunity, if not an even more robust opportunity in partnership with UConn Health.”

The point to the new venture is to increase the footprint of UConn Health across the state to better compete with healthcare giants like Yale New Haven Health and Hartford Healthcare and to start reducing its financial shortfalls, which have averaged $140 million a year between 2020 and 2023.

If the state and UConn can pull off this new venture, according to Lamont, it will help to “lower the cost of care” and could help to expand the types of services available in northeast Connecticut.

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