Christopher Keating, The Hartford Courant

May 3, 2010

The long-running battle over the future of the financially troubled University of Connecticut health center continued Saturday evening as legislators debated over whether the state should pay to renovate the 35-year-old John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington.

After three hours of debate, the House of Representatives voted 109 to 34 in favor of the plan. Some Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats opposed the measure, questioning whether it was necessary.

"With today's successful House vote, we're one important step closer to a new and improved UConn Health Center that will offer the highest quality health care and lead to the creation of hundreds of jobs associated with the health care industry," Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in a statement released Saturday night. "The network created will have incredible reach throughout the state."

The clash over the center's future has lasted for so long that it has covered different proposals and different UConn administrations with high-profile administrators who have retired.

"This proposal will provide needed renovation and expansion" at the health center, said Rep. Roberta Willis, the co-chairwoman of the legislature's higher education committee who described the improvements as "long overdue."

"It is our hospital, and it is our responsibility to address its needs," Willis said on the House floor.

The plan calls for a new bed tower in Farmington with 165 to 169 beds - and an overall increase in the number of licensed beds from 230 to 234, lawmakers said.

The health center has been bailed out multiple times by the legislature since 2000 as the center could not meet its financial obligations without a state infusion of cash near the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

The multi-pronged plan also includes a simulation center at Hartford Hospital; a primary care institute at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford in order to increase the number of primary care providers in the state; a center for health disparities; a state-created network that will involve the area hospitals regarding cancer care; and improvements at the Hospital of Central Connecticut.

The idea is contingent on $237 million in state bonding and $100 million in federal funding that was secured by U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd. But an estimated 13 states can compete for the federal money, which is not guaranteed to Connecticut.

"The intent here is if the $100 million did not come through that the University of Connecticut would have the ability to try to go out and raise the money, and they need to accomplish that by 2015 or the project here would cease ... if the grant doesn't come through," Willis said.

Since some of the area hospitals have long opposed any expansion at UConn in Farmington, the new idea from Gov. M. Jodi Rell provided incentives to multiple hospitals in order to gain their support. This was a drastically different idea from the go-it-alone approach in the past as UConn tried to win unilateral approval from a legislature that includes many UConn alumni. Those ideas, however, were never approved in the past.

UConn projected that the overall program would create 6,800 new jobs by 2030 and 7,400 new jobs by 2040 in bio-science enterprises by attracting researchers and entrepreneurs at new start-up businesses in the bio-science field.

But Senate Republican leader John McKinney of Fairfield said the improvements were too expensive as the state faces its worst fiscal crisis in decades.

"It's $237 million of new bonding at a time when we can least afford it," McKinney said Saturday.

Rep. Selim Noujaim, a Waterbury Republican who opposes the plan, said on the House floor that Yale University had built its new cancer recently with private funding, and he wondered whether private funding had been sought for UConn. Willis responded that she expects private funding in the future.

"The UConn building is 35 years old. We have been told it's antiquated. Mr. Speaker, I am involved in other hospitals," Noujaim said, adding that two hospitals in Waterbury are over 100 years old and handle more Medicaid patients than Dempsey. "It behooves us to support other hospitals as well."

Noujaim said the deal would cost the state $361.4 million.

Rep. Marie Kirkley-Bey, a deputy House Speaker from Hartford, asked about the state's payments to UConn to provide medical care for prison inmates who are brought to the hospital. Willis said she was not aware of Kirkley-Bey's view that the number of beds for prisoners would be decreased.

Rep. Demetrios Giannaros, a Farmington Democrat, strongly supported the hospital's improvements, saying it will help the state for years to come.

"We have a chance to really stand out - worldwide," Giannaros said. "This is an investment. It is not spending. ... I want to reemphasize that this is a good investment."

A key part of the plan involves creating bio-science enterprise zones around the hospitals in order to attract researchers.

"Why can't we do that around Yale?" asked Rep. Jason Perillo, a Shelton Republican. "I don't quite understand how UConn is going to be able to differentiate itself from Yale. I don't understand how UConn is going to be able to do a better job than Yale. ... Why can't we do it without the creation of another bed tower?"

"Because the building will not support it," Willis said. "You can only push this out so long and the day of reckoning is going to come. ... The hospital, the way it was designed 35 years ago, was not built to handle these changes."

"I don't know that my question is answered," Perillo responded. "I don't understand why we need to spend this money to create another tower. I don't know why we need a big tower to do it."{

"We're spending money on something that I don't think we need," Perillo said. "To be honest, I'm not sure we need this hospital. ... Why reinvent the wheel? I just can't support this today because I think we're just throwing money at a problem."