Northwell Health’s purchase of Sharon Hospital a ‘good move’ for CT’s Northwest Corner, official says

News-Times – Thursday, April 17, 2025
By Ruth Epstein

SHARON — Health care giant Northwell’s $20 billion takeover of Nuvance — the owner of four hospitals in western Connecticut, including Sharon Hospital — has many in the Northwest Corner hopeful the move could help alleviate the region’s so-called “health care desert.”

The state oversight agency that approved the Northwell deal March 31 said health care consumers should expect “positive impacts” from the merger of Nuvance’s health centers and hospitals in Danbury, New Milford, Norwalk and Sharon, which have been losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

A statement from Save Sharon Hospital, the grassroots effort that has been at the forefront fighting for the facility’s future, especially when it came to lobbying for continuing labor and delivery services, said, “Sharon Hospital will now be under leadership that wants not only to improve and expand services at the hospital, but also maintain its current vital services, such as maternity.”

“In addition, the agreement requires Sharon Hospital to be maintained as a full-service community hospital including 24/7 surgical capabilities and a full-service emergency department. Now our community can feel protected that our vital health care services will remain local.”

The state’s Office of Health Strategy, which negotiated the agreement, said in a statement that “the agreement sets conditions safeguarding the interests of Connecticut patients and providers, such as price constraints tied in part to the state’s cost growth benchmark. As part of this affiliation, Northwell will invest at least $1 billion across the Nuvance hospitals in Connecticut and New York over the next five years.”

Sharon First Selectman Casey Flanagan is optimistic the merger of Northwell Health and Nuvance will be good for local health care.

“It sounds like it could be a good move,” Flanagan said. “Northwell has said it will be investing in the Nuvance hospitals, including Sharon. The signing of a five-year agreement to keep labor and delivery open at Sharon, which is a most important issue in this area, is positive. I’m hopeful this will work out well.”

Whether Sharon Hospital would even continue to serve residents in the Northwest Corner at all has been top of mind for many as the region faces the same problems as other rural parts of the United States when it comes to medical access for its residents.

Health care challenges in rural communities

Nancy Heaton is the president and CEO of Foundation for Community Health, which was formed in 2003 upon the sale of Sharon Hospital to for-profit Essent Healthcare. At a recent forum on the topic of rural health care held before the Northwell deal was announced, Heaton said in an ideal world, everyone would have access to affordable, quality healthcare.

“But what works in urban areas often doesn’t in rural areas where there is a low population base and travel distances make it difficult to get to appointments,” she said. “The most common problem is the lack of transportation and the time it takes to get to doctors’ offices. Telehealth helps some, but there are many areas with poor broadband.”

Sharon Hospital President Christina McCulloch, who could not be reached for comment, said at the forum that “hospitals in rural areas are met with financial instability that is not always present in large urban facilities,” while at the same time they are providing a wide range of services.

Sharon Hospital sees 13,000 patients in its emergency department a year, 40,000 outpatients, does 2,000 surgeries and procedures and has close to 1,500 admittances, McCulloch said.

“Our costs are more than we receive, so we have to study what service points are needed most,” McCulloch said. Rural hospitals are faced with low volumes and difficulty in recruiting of medical staff, since many want to work in large hospitals, she said.

Joanne Borduas is CEO of Community Health and Wellness Center, a federally qualified health center, which opened a branch in Canaan in July, in addition to its offices in Torrington and Winsted. She said urban centers are just not facing the same challenges or impacts as those serving smaller communities.

“It’s projected that by 2036, the nation will face a shortage of primary care providers equaling 87,000 physicians,” Borduas said, adding that urban areas have 263 specialists for every 100,000 residents, while rural areas have 30 specialists for that same number of residents.

Sixty-five percent of rural communities have shortages of primary care doctors and just 4% to 5% of incoming medical students represent rural areas.

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