DAILY NEWS CLIP: May 28, 2025

Rockville Hospital could become satellite campus of Manchester Hospital under state deal


CT Insider – Tuesday, May 27, 2025
By Eric Bedner

HARTFORD — A settlement with the state paves the way for Rockville Hospital to become satellite campus of Manchester Hospital, with the Vernon hospital being required to maintain certain services, including emergency and inpatient behavioral health.

Vernon officials expressed anger at the decision as critics argue the settlement clears a path for Rockville Hospital to permanently terminate services that aren’t explicitly included in the agreement. Those include closed surgical services and the intensive care unit.

“By endorsing the illegal actions of Prospect Medical Holdings in cutting services at Rockville General Hospital, and its granting of Prospect’s desire to end Rockville General Hospital’s 100 years of history as an acute care hospital, state government has turned its back on dedicated and hard-working healthcare professionals who work at Rockville General Hospital, and the people of Vernon and surrounding communities the hospital
serves,” Vernon Mayor Dan Champagne said.

Late on Friday, the Office of Health Strategy approved a settlement with Prospect Medical Holdings and Eastern Connecticut Health Network that requires the preservation of current services at Rockville Hospital, but also allows Prospect to apply for a consolidation of the two hospitals’ licenses through the Department of Public Health.

Under the settlement, Rockville Hospital will be required to continue around-the-clock operation of its emergency department for three years.

The facility’s existing inpatient behavioral health services must also be preserved either at or within 30 miles of their current Union Street location.

“Ensuring community access to emergency care in Vernon and preserving inpatient behavioral health beds in the region, under current and future ownership, protects critical resources for east of the river patients and their families,” OHS Commissioner Deidre Gifford said. “As various courts unravel the complex issues surrounding current and future ownership of the Prospect hospitals, our top priority continues to be the health and well-being of the patients and employees.”

Vernon Town Administrator John W. Kleinhans said he was “disappointed in our state government’s inability to understand the need for local hospitals to continue to provide essential healthcare services to our residents.”

And Champagne said he was not confident in the three-year emergency room agreement.

“I have little faith in the assurances of the Office of Health Strategy commissioner that Rockville General Hospital must maintain emergency services for three years,” Champagne said.

The settlement also allows Prospect to seek approval to consolidate the licenses of Rockville and Manchester hospitals, a consolidation effort that OHS had previously approved when Yale New Haven Health was attempting to purchase Prospect’s three Connecticut hospitals.

As part of the settlement, Prospect agreed to include in its bankruptcy case $300,000 in civil penalties owed to the state, which were accrued when Prospect terminated some services at Rockville Hospital without state approval.

While the hospital was allowed to halt certain services during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, as waivers were granted to make room for patients, Prospect did not have permission from OHS to terminate the services permanently.

Under state law, termination of services without state approval can result in civil penalties of up to $1,000 per day.

Furthermore, Prospect is required to clearly indicate to all potential buyers in its bankruptcy case that the state expects a variety of stipulations.

These include a prospective buyer provide a strategic plan for the future of Rockville Hospital, and that the purchaser assume all responsibilities of the settlement, including maintaining emergency services in Rockville and behavioral health services currently provided, with the latter required to be offered within 30 miles of the Rockville section of Vernon.

If a license consolidation is approved, both Rockville and Manchester hospitals must provide a final strategic plan to the state within 180 days of consolidation, a plan that must take into consideration community input.

If the hospitals were to be sold as part of Prospect’s bankruptcy case, the buyer would have to comply with the provisions of the settlement with OHS.

“Each aspect of this agreement holds Prospect applicants responsible for their actions and requires the company to notify all potential bidders in the bankruptcy case of the terms of the agreement,” Gifford said. “This agreement also holds the Prospect applicants accountable to the community, requiring public notice of past terminations and development of a strategic plan for the consolidated hospital. The plan must be developed with community input and presented to the community in a public forum.”

State Sen. Jeff Gordon, R-Woodstock, a doctor whose district includes Vernon, argues the settlement clears a path for the operator of Rockville Hospital to permanently close all services aside from those explicitly required to remain under the settlement.

OHS’s and Gifford’s decision “once again highlights how out of touch with reality our state government is regarding local health care needs in Connecticut,” Gordon said, adding that it took years for the state to hold Prospect accountable for terminating services at Rockville Hospital without permission.

With the settlement, Gordon said, the state “sides with an out-of-state private equity firm that puts profits over patients.”

Gordon was among a group of legislators who led the charge this legislative session to “prevent private equity from destroying the hospitals it owns,” while protecting the jobs of health care workers and providing sufficient oversight, he said.

“The people of Connecticut deserve better than this,” Gordon said.

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