Five years

The news late last month that labor and delivery services at Sharon Hospital will be maintained for a period of five years was welcomed by our community. Connecticut Attorney General Willam Tong said it well: “Miles and minutes matter when it comes to labor and delivery, and I am pleased that Northwell has committed to preserving affordable, lifesaving care—especially maternity care—for Western Connecticut. This is a strong, enforceable agreement for healthcare access in Connecticut.”

Nuvance Health announced this spring that it planned to combine with Northwell Health, the largest health provider in New York State. The resulting 28-hospital system would span the New York and Connecticut border. Northwell itself employs 85,000 people, making it the largest private employer in New York state.

The reprieve was the latest chapter in the battle to keep labor and delivery services at Sharon Hospital, a struggle that has been waged by the grassroots organization Save Sharon Hospital and others, including our political leaders, for years. This year in February the state of Connecticut denied the hospital’s request to close the services, citing a long list of “Findings of Fact” that the hospital questioned. The hospital petitioned the state to reconsider, but the state denied that appeal.

At the time of the announcement of the new combination with Northwell, Sharon Hospital CEO Christine McCulloch said that Northwell has agreed to invest in all of the Nuvance hospitals. So it’s not a complete surprise that labor and delivery services at Sharon Hospital have been spared the chopping block — at least for now.

Save Sharon Hospital described the development as a great first step.

Our hospital had its humble beginnings in 1909 in a house rented by Dr. Jerome Chaffee. Less than a decade later a new building opened with 16 beds and three nurses. Over the years, the hospital underwent more expansion. In a 1969 Lakeville Journal article commemorating Sharon Hospital’s 60th anniversary, its history was described as “written by thousands of dedicated people who founded it, planned its development, staffed its facilities, financed expansion programs and, in many cases, became thankful patients.”

Ownership changes first started to occur in 2002 when a for-profit named Essent Healthcare of Tennessee bought the nonprofit, which triggered protests. More than a decade later Essent merged with another Tennessee-based group, RegionalCare Hospital Partners. Some five years after that, in 2016, Health Quest, formed by a merger of three hospitals in New York, took control of the hospital and it once again became a nonprofit. Soon thereafter, in 2019, Health Quest merged with Western CT Health Network, with hospitals in Connecticut, to become Nuvance Health.

This whirlwind of merger and acquisition and flip flop from nonprofit to for-profit and back to nonprofit brings us to our current state of affairs. Confidence in the future prospects for our beloved rural hospital should be bolstered by both Sharon Hospital’s ranking and by Northwell’s long list of top honors as a healthcare provider, and by the reputation of its CEO Michael Dowling as a healthcare leader. Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) gave Sharon Hospital a five-star rating for the fifth consecutive year.

As SSH said, this is a great first step, and welcome news.