| On Monday, the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) announced a Final Decision denying Nuvance Health's application to close the maternity unit at Sharon Hospital. This follows OHS's earlier preliminary decision (also denying the application), which was appealed by Nuvance. You can read the OHS Final Decision here.
The decision means that the labor and delivery unit at Sharon Hospital will remain open, and that pregnant people can be assured that when they present to Sharon Hospital in labor or with an obstetrical emergency they will be treated by a trained obstetrician. Sharon Hospital must maintain on-call pediatricians and anesthesiologists, as well as surgical facilities. Pregnant people will not have to travel long distances to access safe, high-quality birthing services.
The decision is a big win for the people in the Northwest Corner, and indeed for rural hospitals across the nation. While Nuvance does have the option to appeal the decision to the Superior Court of Connecticut, I am hopeful that this will be a turning point, enabling us to move from the antagonism of a long-fought battle to protect maternity care in our rural region, to a constructive conversation about how best to achieve that for the benefit of the entire community. There are many throughout the region who are committed to protecting access to the full range of reproductive healthcare for the long run, and I look forward to working together to achieve that goal.
As a little bit of icing on the cake, Sharon Hospital was recently recognized as one of the top five hospitals in CT in a survey published in Newsweek, which also noted that Sharon Hospital was the only one of the top five to earn a Patient Satisfaction Award. Congratulations to the healthcare professionals who made that possible!
The other big news for me this week is that the 2024 legislative session officially opened on Wednesday, when Governor Lamont addressed the legislature in a joint session, outlining his budget and policy proposals for the year. From a budgetary perspective, opening day represents the official passing of the baton from the Governor to the legislature, as we now start the committee process, scheduling hearings on the Governor's proposals and our own. There will be a lot of hearings, as always, but one option in a short session (this year) is to leave in place the two-year budget we passed last year. That bipartisan biennium budget is one we remain proud of, with historic tax cuts and funding of priorities such as education and healthcare, while adhering to our fiscal guidelines. I am reminding my colleagues that while we have many options open to us this year, leaving the budget as is might turn out to be a good one. |
