Amanda Falcone, The Hartford Courant

May 4, 2010

The Senate voted 28-7 today to approve plans to renovate John Dempsey Hospital at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

The House of Representatives voted on the bill over the weekend. The measure now goes to the governor.

The hospital is 35 years old, and the state has bailed the health center out of financial trouble several times since 2000. The changing of the composition of beds at Dempsey is expected to help the hospital financially, said Sen. MaryAnn Handley, D-Manchester.

The bill would improve Dempsey hospital by building a new patient tower, increasing the total number of beds from 230 to 234. The health center includes the hospital and is home to UConn's medical and dental and graduate research programs.

The bill would also create a simulation center at Hartford Hospital, add a primary care institute at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford and create a center for health disparities. Plans include a state created network that will involve area hospitals regarding cancer care and improvements at the Hospital of Central Connecticut.

UConn says the proposed plan would create 6,800 new jobs by 2030 and 7,400 new jobs by 2040 by attracting researchers and entrepreneurs at new start-up businesses in bioscience. The plan would establish bioscience enterprise zones around the hospitals to attract researchers.

Plans are contingent on $237 in state bonding and $100 million in federal funding secured by U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd. Connecticut, however, is not guaranteed the federal dollars. Thirteen states can compete for the money. If the state does not get the federal funds, UConn would be responsible for securing the $100 million by 2015, or the project would cease.

Republican senators said they were concerned about the cost of the project, and they offered an amendment that would have eliminated the new patient tower from the plans. The amendment would have saved the state $207 million in bonds, or $315.7 million in principal and interest payments over 20 years.

"We need to help our area hospitals without breaking the bank," said Sen. Debicella, R-Shelton.

"There's things we have to do, and there's things we'd like to do," Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, saying that Connecticut cannot afford to build a new patient tower.

The bill's proponents say the health center must have a new tower in order for the rest of the plans included in the bill to be carried out properly. The amendment would have destroyed the entire proposal, said Sen. Donald DeFronzo, D-New Britain, who said that lawmakers were being asked to decide whether to support the state's investment in the health center.

The Republican amendment failed 9-23.

A second amendment was proposed, and it also failed.

That amendment would have prevented the state from spending $25 million in bond funds on planning and design for a new tower until the $100 million in full and until the State Bond Commission provides the money for the UConn health network initiatives.

"Tonight's vote represents a critical leap forward - not just for a state-of-the-art John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington but for a health network with incredible reach throughout Connecticut and thousands of new jobs that will be associated with the network and the hospital,'' Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in a statement. "We are taking steps to put UConn's schools of medicine and dentistry into the top tier of academics and research. We are moving to increase classroom and lab space for those students and offset the shortages we expect in those essential professions. And we are setting the stage for enormous improvements in the health care we provide and tremendous growth in the number of people that industry employs."