Patient advocate reports no ‘material issues’ at visits to Prospect’s Connecticut hospitals

CT Insider – Tuesday, April 1, 2025
By Liese Klein, Paul Hughes, and Eric Bedner

A court-appointed patient advocate filed her first report Tuesday on the three Connecticut hospitals owned by bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings, highlighting issues from food-storage concerns to emergency room overcrowding.

Suzanne Koenig, appointed by a Texas bankruptcy judge to the role of “patient care ombudsman” earlier this year, visited Waterbury, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals in February for brief visits and filed her findings as part of a 112-page report.

A former social worker who founded an Illinois healthcare consultancy business, Koenig was tasked by the judge with monitoring the current quality of patient care at Prospect’s hospitals nationwide, including the three in Connecticut.

“A patient care ombudsman is concerned only with the current and prospective care of patients during a chapter 11 case,” Koenig stated in the introduction to her report. Tuesday’s filing also includes reports on Prospect hospitals in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and California.

Koenig visited each Prospect hospital for a four- to eight-hour period, accompanied by a nurse employed by her company. The pair toured each facility in addition to requesting and reviewing hospital records.

The hospital visits were announced and planned in advance, according to a Waterbury Hospital union representative, who disputed some of the ombudsman’s findings.

“They’re not going to get an accurate picture of what the RNs’ daily work life is like when a manager is standing over their shoulder monitoring their conversation,” said Dave Hannon, president of Connecticut Health Care Associates District 1199.

Hospital visitors tour units

At Waterbury Hospital, Koenig met with executives who said they had difficulty hiring staff since Prospect’s January bankruptcy filing “due to uncertainty regarding the hospital’s future and negative press.”

Elsewhere in the hospital, the impact of Prospect’s financial woes was evident in the high numbers of patients in the emergency department, Koenig said. “The (emergency department) was crowded, and the need for expansion as planned was evident,” she noted, citing a plan put on hold due to the bankruptcy filing.

Staff in other Waterbury Hospital departments ‒ including the intensive care unit, the cardiac cath lab and birthing unit ‒ told Koenig that they had ample supplies and reported good staff morale.

On a visit to Manchester Memorial Hospital, Koenig said she observed that the hospital’s labor and delivery and med-surg units were clean and well-organized. But she observed mess and clutter in the hospital’s kitchen along with inconsistent food temperatures on a steam table.

“The ombudsman notified administration regarding the issues with the kitchen department and was assured that these concerns will be addressed and that necessary improvements to this department will be made,” Koenig wrote in her report.

At Rockville General Hospital in Vernon, Koenig toured the emergency department and reported it was “clean and clutter-free.” She also praised the hospital’s geriatric psychiatry unit, noting that “patients were calm, and the staff was engaging.”

Reporting on all of Prospect’s hospitals involved in the bankruptcy, Koenig concluded: “The ombudsman did not observe any material issues impacting patient care requiring this court’s immediate attention.”

But some of Koenig’s observations did raise questions: She singled out Waterbury Hospital for claiming it was the only designated “Baby-Friendly” birthing unit in Connecticut.

A worldwide effort to encourage breast-feeding, the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative website does not list Waterbury Hospital among the six centers in the state designated as “baby-friendly.”

Waterbury mayor finds good news in report

Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr. said he found the first ombudsman’s report encouraging in a number of respects.

“It seems to reinforce that the staff is committed to doing a good job, which is what I have been hearing anecdotally,” he said. “But the good news is that they appear to have their supply issues and their vendor issues under control, which was a problem pre-bankruptcy. It appears those relationships are back in place, and people are being paid and they are getting what they need on a regular basis. I think it is good news for the hospital and the people of Waterbury.”

Pernerewski said he is hopeful the bankruptcy proceeding will lead to a successful sale of Waterbury Hospital by June or later in the summer.

“In the meantime, it looks like the hospital is able to provide services in a good way at this point,” he said.

But Hannon of Connecticut Health Care Associates District 1199 disputed the ombudsman’s depiction of the situation at Waterbury Hospital in the initial report. The union represents the hospital’s nursing staff and technical positions. “This sounds more like a public relations report than a report by an objective ombudsperson from my reading of it,” he said.

Hannon said this was a preplanned inspection tour, and Koenig and her representatives were escorted by management representatives. “They really spent no time talking with the rank-and-file nurses that were doing all the work, and this report from what I have read of it seems to support that,” he said.

A member of management was present anytime the ombudsman and her team spoke to nurses, he said.

Hannon said District 1199 arranged a virtual meeting three weeks ago between Koenig and union representatives, including himself and several Waterbury Hospital workers, because of concerns that the ombudsman was only getting management’s version of what day-to-day operations are like.

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