Health Quest is now part of Nuvance Health

SHARON — The owner of Sharon Hospital has merged with the Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN), following state and federal approvals that were finalized on April 1.

The new combined company will be known as Nuvance Health. 

Health Quest, a not-for-profit network of medical providers and hospitals in nearby New York state, purchased Sharon Hospital in August 2017. The company also was negotiating with WCHN to form a partnership. 

The two companies submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) application to Connecticut regulators in November 2018; notice was also given to New York regulators and the federal government. 

An Agreed Settlement was issued last week, on April 1, by the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS). New York and federal approvals were already in place.

Consolidation = cost savings

The Certificate of Need to Connecticut’s OHS says the two companies were seeking to streamline their operations as a way to save money. Some of the ways they plan to do this are by consolidating administrative positions; and finding cost savings in services and supplies as a larger entity.

The two companies estimate in their CON that the Western Connecticut Health Network hospitals could see savings that total $34 million in 2022; Sharon Hospital is expected to save $1 million in 2022.

Corporate structure 

Nuvance Health will be a not-for-profit corporation with an 18-member board of trustees that includes 16 “at large” trustees (with eight nominated by WCHN and eight nominated by Health Quest). 

Health Quest President and CEO Robert Friedberg will be president of Nuvance. John M. Murphy (who was president and CEO of WCHN) will be CEO of Nuvance.

In their CON, the two companies said they will make vigorous efforts to expand treatment options for the patients in their new network. The Health Quest hospitals are Northern Dutchess in Rhinebeck, Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel, N.Y., and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie (and Sharon Hospital after August 2017). Health Quest Medical Practice has 265 providers in Dutchess, Putnam and Ulster Counties.

WCHN has Danbury Hospital, New Milford Hospital and Norwalk Hospital. 

Maternity at Sharon 

“There are no planned terminations or reductions in services as a direct result of the affiliation,” according to the CON, “however Sharon Hospital is evaluating its ability to maintain maternity services due to challenges in retaining qualified obstetricians for the program.”

The state OHS, in its list of requirements for the new company, says, “By FY2020, [Nuvance] shall use commercially reasonable efforts to employ, engage or otherwise include on the Sharon Hospital medical staff a minimum of two full-time equivalent Obstetrics and Gynecology physicians that provide obstetrical services at Sharon Hospital, subject to the availability of appropriate physicians and community need.”

Serving community needs

The order also requires Nuvance to continue to make charity care available.

Danbury, Norwalk, New Milford and Sharon hospitals must “maintain and adhere to their current policies regarding charity care and indigent care after the Closing Date, or adopt other policies that are at least as generous and benevolent to the community …”

The two medical groups said in the CON that they will address “the unmet needs of behavioral health patients in their service areas through the support of community outreach programs and the enhanced delivery of specialized behavioral health services (e.g. telehealth strategies to evaluate health crisis and senior care).”

Telehealth strategies involve the use of video chats to allow health care professionals to do an exam with a patient from a remote location.

The CON also promises to increase the number of specialists and medical providers in the Nuvance coverage area and to reduce medical costs. 

Updates and feedback

The state is requiring Nuvance for the next five years to “allow 12 community representatives to serve as voting members on the Sharon Hospital Board of Directors (i.e. post-closing replacement of the hospitals’ Board) with rights and obligations consistent with other voting members under the individual hospital Board of Directors Bylaws.”

And for the next five years, Nuvance is required to hold meetings at least twice a year to update the public on “the hospitals/system’s activities.” The public must be allowed to ask questions and make comments at these meetings.

Denise George has been the interim leader at Sharon Hospital since Peter Cordeau left to take a position at Norwalk Hospital at the end of January 2019. A search is underway for a new president of the hospital.