Patient advocate to evaluate quality of care at Prospect CT hospitals

CT Insider – Wednesday, March 5, 2025
By Liese Klein

Everything from nurse schedules to elevators to the state of cafeteria kitchens at Prospect Medical Holdings’ three Connecticut hospitals will be scrutinized in coming weeks as a court-appointed patient advocate prepares to pass judgement amid the company’s bankruptcy.

Suzanne Koenig, founder and CEO of Illinois-based SAK Management Services, was appointed as “patient care ombudsman” by a bankruptcy judge on Jan. 30 to evaluate the care at Prospect’s health-care properties nationwide, which include Manchester Memorial, Rockville General and Waterbury hospitals in Connecticut.

“The role of a patient care ombudsman is to ‘monitor the quality of patient care and to represent the interests of patients’ in the bankruptcy of a health care business,” Koenig wrote in describing her role in a court filing in another hospital-chain bankruptcy last year. Under court rules, the ombudsman must visit Prospect’s hospitals within 60 days of taking the role and file reports every 60 days after that.

Koenig declined to comment on her Connecticut timetable or details of her role, citing court restrictions on an ombudsman’s statements to the media.

Prospect said it would support Koenig’s efforts to evaluate its properties and that all three hospitals “remain fully operational, focused on clinical excellence and dedicated to serving our communities,” the company said in a Tuesday statement.

“Our hospitals remain committed to quality, safety and operational excellence as we navigate this transition,” Prospect said. “We welcome the oversight process and fully support the ombudsman’s role in ensuring transparency as we continue to uphold state and federal standards in high-quality patient care.”

In another move aimed at ensuring quality care at Prospect’s businesses, an independent monitor appointed by the state Department of Public Health remains at Waterbury Hospital in the wake of health code violations observed last year, the agency said on Feb. 27.

“DPH is also conducting routine monitoring of all Prospect sites to ensure healthcare quality and safety is upheld,” the agency said in a statement.

Prospect’s Connecticut hospitals could be sold at auction as soon as June 5, according to a timeline filed with the bankruptcy court on Feb. 18. The next hearing on the case is scheduled for Thursday in North Texas bankruptcy court in Dallas.

Prospect’s PA hospitals earn good grades

As patient care ombudsman, Koenig has wide latitude to evaluate both a hospital’s importance in the community as well as observed details like the availability of supplies in a hospital’s emergency department.

In a document filed with the bankruptcy court on Feb. 6, Koenig described her visits to Prospect’s two Pennsylvania hospitals, Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Chester and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park.

Koenig said she visited the Pennsylvania hospitals on Feb. 4 and 5, at a time when Crozer had a patient census of 210 people and Taylor had 67. Her report stresses the importance of the two hospitals to the older and low-income populations in the area, which straddles Interstate 95 south of Philadelphia.

“The closures of the Pennsylvania hospitals would be devastating to the community and the patients who rely on these hospitals,” Koenig wrote. She goes on to report favorably on the staffing and services at the two facilities. “The ombudsman observed excellent patient care during her tours of the Pennsylvania hospitals,” she wrote.

Soon after the ombudsman’s report, the bankruptcy court appointed a temporary manager to operate Prospect’s Pennsylvania hospitals, with the first 30 days paid for with $20 million in state and county funds, according to reporting by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Working as a patient advocate in New England last year, Koenig was more critical in a July report on visits to the Massachusetts hospitals run by Steward Health Care. Steward is a for-profit hospital operator that filed for bankruptcy in May 2024 amid allegations of mismanagement and financial wrongdoing.

Although Koenig said direct patient care at its hospitals was generally not impacted by Steward’s financial turmoil, she reported that some of the institutions were short of staff and had broken elevators and dirty kitchens.

In a report on a June 3 visit to Boston’s St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Koenig described multiple broken elevators, dirty windows and doors and chipped handrails.

“Except for many non-functioning elevators, the ombudsman did not observe anything on the day of the visit to indicate that patients are receiving unsafe care or are in immediate jeopardy,” Koenig wrote in her report.

St. Elizabeth’s was acquired by Boston Medical Center and converted back into a nonprofit last September as part of state-boosted efforts to save the bulk of Steward’s hospitals. The ombudsman is still visiting former Steward hospitals on a regular basis, with the most recent report filed on Jan. 21.

Two of Steward’s seven hospitals in Massachusetts have since closed down and the remaining five have been transferred to new operators.

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