New reports highlight patient deaths as bidders plan to acquire CT hospitals

Hartford Courant – Monday, October 6, 2025
By Livi Stanford

With bids for Prospect Medical Holdings’ three Connecticut hospitals expected, state Department of Public Health reports flag concerns at the private equity hospitals, including the death of an infant and two others.

“Anytime there is a loss of life it is heartbreaking and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered,” said state Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, D-Fairfield, co-chair of the state’s Public Health Committee.

“DPH is continuing to do everything they can to monitor the situation but we are seeing the impacts of what has happened as a result of taking money out of the system and paying shareholders versus reinvesting into patients in their care and our hospitals. We will continue to press and do everything we can do to make sure that every single patient is safe and protected.”

Brittany Schaefer, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health, said in an email that the state agency continues to conduct monitoring visits at all Prospect facilities to “ensure the healthcare quality and safety of patients. In addition, an independent monitor remains onsite weekly at Waterbury Hospital for monitoring related to the ongoing consent order.”

In November of last year, the state Department of Public Health in a consent order fined Waterbury Hospital $60,000 for violations of state law and called on the hospital to develop, review and revise policies and procedures related to staffing levels, abuse prevention and other policies.

Prospect owns Manchester Memorial, Rockville General and Waterbury Hospitals. The private equity company has long faced financial challenges — from delayed payments for physicians and vendors to health care provider shortages — and state and federal officials say that the company has maximized profits at the expense of patient care. Prospect Medical filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past January and bankruptcy court proceedings are occurring in the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division.

Several state lawmakers have long warned that private equity has negatively impacted patient care.

A new study from the Annals of Internal Medicine has found a 13% increase in patient deaths in the Emergency Departments of private equity hospitals compared to those that were not owned by private equity.

State lawmakers were unable to bring legislation to the House or Senate floor this past session, which would have prohibited private equity companies from acquiring direct or indirect ownership over a hospital or health system.

Manchester Memorial

DPH reported in an unannounced complaint survey conducted in early June of a tragic case resulting in the death of a baby. In that case, DPH said, the “hospital failed to ensure” a mother in labor “was fully informed of the changes in fetal heart rate and the pros and cons of alternate methods of delivery in order to make an informed decision when the infant was assessed with potentially significant fetal compromise.”

The report on the delivery in April found that the fetal strip, which measures the fetal heart rate, identified recurrent “variable decelerations (indicative of cord compression — fetus not receiving adequate oxygen” which the report later stated progressed to an abnormal and adverse neonatal outcome.” The infant delivered on April 2 died, the report said.

“The clinical record lacked documentation that the patient was provided with all the necessary up-to-date information about the response of the infant to the labor process and potential outcomes in terms that can be reasonably expected to be understood in order to participate in decisions regarding their care,” the report said.

The hospital was identified for immediate jeopardy, “which represents a situation in which noncompliance by providers, suppliers or laboratories has placed the health and safety of recipients in its care at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment or death,” according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services.

Lauresha Xhihani, CT regional director of communications and public relations for ECHN and Waterbury Health, said in an email statement that “patient safety remains our highest priority and we consistently adhere to industry best practices to provide high-quality care. CMS has accepted our corrective actions and the immediate jeopardy determination is closed.”

Waterbury Hospital

The latest plan of correction filed for Waterbury Hospital this past August cited issues regarding medication errors and patient care concerns.

The report concerning a patient in the hospital on Dec. 9 of last year states that “nursing failed to monitor patient #230 who experienced a change in condition while awaiting transfer to the step down unit. As a result, the patient sustained an unwitnessed fall and was found deceased.”

The report goes on to state that the “hospital failed to ensure the patient had a sitter as directed by the physician and/or the bed alarm activated when the patient exited the bed.” The report further states that the primary cause of the patient’s death was “respiratory failure due to pleural effusion and lung cancer.”

Staff “failed to ensure fall risk assessments were completed for six of nine patients,” the report says.

In another incident, the “hospital failed to ensure that the RN administering Heparin was qualified to care for patients receiving Heparin therapy.”

The “hospital failed to ensure medication was administered in accordance with the physicians’ order, and failed to adequately supervise one RN, with a history of noncompliance with the hospital’s medication administration policy, resulting in a significant medication error,” the report says.

The patient was admitted to the hospital for sepsis with recurrence of MRSA bacteremia on Nov. 4 of last year, the report stated. The patient was transitioned to hospice service and was started on an IV morphine drip for comfort, the report stated.

“The patient received 10x max dose of ordered IV morphine and expired,” the report stated.

In another incident, the report cited that the hospital also “failed to ensure medical staff discontinued a narcotic medication when the duplicate order was not intended resulting in the patient having multiple narcotic orders.”

Xhihani also said of Waterbury Hospital that patient safety remains the hospital’s highest priority.

“Under the oversight of multiple regulators, we implement industry best practices to ensure safe and quality care,” she said. “ Like other hospitals nationwide, we continue to face staffing challenges, though we are actively recruiting and have hired 19 nurses in the past three months, in addition to adding 16 experienced travel nurses. These efforts ensure our patients always receive the safe, high-quality care they deserve.”

Dave Hannon, president of Connecticut Healthcare Associates district 1199 National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees, said there are continued issues with recruitment and retention of nurses at Waterbury Hospital.

“They are not following the staffing plan,” he said. “The reason why they are not following it is they don’t have enough people to fill in those holes. People are working with high patient loads and high census and there is really not much they can do about it.”

Studying private equity hospitals

Zirui Song, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, who has studied private equity in hospitals for the last five years, recently published a study with several other researchers in the Annals of Internal Medicine concerning hospital staffing and patient outcomes after private equity acquisition.

The study compared one million ED visits and 121,080 ICU hospitalizations across 49 private equity hospitals to six million ED visits and 760,377 ICU visits across 293 hospitals.

“After private equity acquisition, hospitals on average reduced salaries and staffing relative to nonacquired hospitals, notably in EDs and ICUs, which are higher-acuity and staffing-sensitive areas,” the report stated. “This decreased capacity to deliver care may explain the increased patient transfers to other hospitals, shortened ICU lengths of stay and increased ED mortality.”

Song said in private equity hospitals there was an increase of seven deaths per 10,000 ED visits relative to non-private equity hospitals.

Song said the study found after private equity acquisition that hospital EDs and ICUs exhibited 16 to 18% salary reductions.

“In the hospital setting, I would agree that the size of staffing cuts and salary cuts for staff have plausibly contributed to the increase in patient harm,” Song said. “Hospital care remains a labor intensive, face to face human endeavor where staffing can matter a great deal for patient outcomes. There are parts of health care where technology and machines and even AI are increasingly substituting for human labor, but inside of hospitals, in EDs and ICUs and the patient wards, patient care remains a largely hands on, person to person human profession.”

New hope

Several state lawmakers expressed optimism in the expected bids of the hospitals.

Hartford HealthCare confirmed on Sept. 19 that it entered into an agreement to acquire Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital from Prospect Medical Holdings for $86.1 million.

UConn Health is planning to submit a bid to acquire Waterbury Hospital.

UConn Health Board of Directors, the UConn Health Center Finance Corporation Board, and the UConn Board of Trustees approved on Friday moving forward with a bid to invest in Waterbury Hospital.

“This opportunity represents an important partnership with the state to help preserve access to health care in the Waterbury region, while also extending UConn Health’s award-winning care to more communities across Connecticut,” said Dr. Andy Agwunobi, CEO for UConn Health.

State Sen. Saud Anwar, co-chair of the state’s Public Health Committee, said that he believes it is important for UConn Health and the state to work together to “make patient safety, workforce support and quality of care their top priorities.

“UConn Health brings a tradition of clinical excellence, academic medicine and a mission-driven approach that could strengthen patient care in the region,” he said. “For this to succeed, however, it cannot be a superficial change of ownership. The state must make meaningful investments in this partnership to stabilize the hospital, support its workforce and restore community trust.”

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