On Friday evening, Vernon leaders learned that the state officials had granted permission to Prospect Medical Holdings to terminate Rockville General Hospital’s status as a full-service acute care hospital. Only the emergency department will remain open for three years. Behavioral health services will remain “at or within 30 miles” of Rockville General Hospital. The settlement between Prospect and the state Office of Health Strategy does not require Prospect to restore services it cut without state permission and in violation of state law.
This decision by state healthcare regulators to allow these draconian cuts in services at Rockville General Hospital hurts Vernon, surrounding communities, hospital employees and Connecticut.
“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.
“The state Office of Health Care Access and its current incarnation as the Office of Health Strategy are complicit in the killing of Rockville General Hospital, first by not holding Prospect accountable for its illegal service cuts at RGH and then for its irresponsibly long review of the proposed merger of Eastern Connecticut Health Network and Yale New Haven Health,” Mayor Champagne said. “We can’t help but wonder what other forces were at work in forcing the absurdly long review of the merger application. Connecticut officials knew they were dealing with private equity vampires in Prospect Medical Holdings and that unnecessary delay would place the merger and our hospitals at risk, while also preventing the respected Yale New Haven health system from establishing a presence in north central Connecticut, long the domain of Hartford Healthcare and Trinity Health of New England. The people of Vernon, eastern Connecticut and elsewhere did not matter to state bureaucrats and leaders in this process.”
“As a Vernon native, I understand the critical role Rockville General Hospital has played in the healthcare of generations of area residents,” Vernon Town Administrator John W. Kleinhans said. “I am disappointed in our state government’s inability to understand the need for local hospitals to continue to provide essential healthcare services to our residents.”
“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,” Mayor Champagne said. “And the fix is clearly in on the behavioral health services RGH now offers. The utter failure of state government to properly regulate Prospect-owned ECHN and to complete a timely review of the ECHN-Yale New Haven Health merger doomed Rockville General Hospital. Prospect will not be satisfied until it has abandoned Rockville General Hospital and eliminated an essential full-service acute care hospital for Vernon and the surrounding communities.”