Senator Caligiuri Urges State To Keep Waterbury Heart Center Open Asks State To Grant Six Month Extension While Hospitals Apply For Permanent Heart Center
Senator Sam Caligiuri (R-16) today testified before the state Office of Health Care Access (OHCA) in favor of keeping the Heart Center of Greater Waterbury open for the next six months because “it is the right thing to do as a matter of public policy, common sense, and law.”
OHCA, which held its public hearing at the state Legislative Office Building in Hartford, will decide whether to grant a six month extension of the three-year old demonstration project operated by Waterbury Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital in cooperation with the University of Connecticut Health Center. The Heart Center of Greater Waterbury ultimately must seek permanent status. Among other communities, the Heart Center of Greater Waterbury serves Waterbury, Cheshire, Southington and Wolcott.
In his testimony, Senator Caligiuri noted that OHCA agreed to allow the Heart Center of Greater Waterbury to open three years ago because “it will guarantee the availability of a quality primary and elective angioplasty and open-heart surgery service for the citizens of the Greater Waterbury area.” Senator Caligiuri told OHCA officials conducting the public hearing that the Heart Center of Greater Waterbury has met that expectation, and continues to provide quality care that saves lives.
“I can tell you, on a personal note, what a blessing it would have been to have the Heart Center in Waterbury when my father was being carted between Waterbury and Bridgeport for several years for angioplasty and open heart surgery. He wasn’t able to benefit from this before he died, but I am so grateful that others have,” said Senator Caligiuri, noting that before the Heart Center of Greater Waterbury opened, the closest providers of angioplasty and open heart surgery were more than 30 miles from the service area.
Senator Caligiuri pointed out that the Heart Center of Greater Waterbury will formally apply for permanent status before the requested six month extension expires in January.
“As a matter of public policy, it would make no sense to shut them down for six months while they go through this (application) process. That would be an overly legalistic conclusion with potentially disastrous real-world consequences to the people who live in this region . . . That cannot possibly be the public policy of the State of Connecticut,” said Senator Caligiuri.
Senator Caligiuri also said that, in making a decision regarding the requested extension, OHCA must take into consideration the fact that pressure from the state to merge Waterbury Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital has changed the conditions surrounding the Heart Center of Greater Waterbury.
“When the hospitals presented their merger plans to the state, they included projected financial statements that assumed revenue from the Heart Center. Losing this revenue could be devastating to the proposed combined hospital. It would be unconscionable for the state, on the one hand, to pressure these two hospitals to merge, and then on the other hand, to take away from the merged hospital the revenue that will be critical to its survival . . . I urge you to view the announced intentions of the hospitals to merge – which is clearly a result of state pressure – as a changed condition that, as a matter of law, would justify your granting the requested extension,” said Senator Caligiuri.
