Hartford Business Journal

26 Hartford Business Journal • October 5, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com 2020 POWER 25 — HEALTH CARE and assisted living facilities scattered around the state. But perhaps no single event has drawn a spotlight on the long-term care industry than the COVID-19 pandemic, which has re- sulted in 3,000- plus deaths of elderly residents. Those deaths have comprised roughly 75% of all Connecticut coronavirus deaths, driving the state's CO- VID-19 death rate higher than those of other states. During the turmoil, and with state gov- ernment now investigating long-term care facilities' pandemic response, two people have worked to protect the interests of facility operators and owners: Matthew Bar- rett, president and CEO of the Con- necticut Association of Health Care Facilities (CAHCF) and Mag Morelli, president of LeadingAge Connecticut, which represents nonprofit nursing homes and other facilities. The industry remains in need of financial help, Bar- rett and Morelli told state lawmakers in July, as nursing homes could once again find themselves on the front lines should the virus resurge over the coming months. Operators need access to sufficient testing, protective equipment and staffing. Much else is at stake. For example, Gov. Ned Lamont, joining governors in approximately 20 other states, has granted legal immunity to nursing homes and hospitals for coronavirus- related deaths and suffering, but some state lawmakers want to re- scind it moving forward, which could expose facilities to costly lawsuits. James Shmerling James Shmerling arrived at Con- necticut Children's Medical Center in late 2015, vowing to take cal- culated risks necessary to keep the state's only free- standing pediatric hospital self-sufficient. Thus far the CEO has made good on his pledge. Under his leadership, Connecticut Children's overall financial margin has bested the statewide median for four years running. It will be tougher to stay in the black this year, given the toll COVID-19 has taken on many hospitals, but even amid the uncertainty, Shmerling green- lit a joint venture with a national consulting firm that aims to provide revenue-cycle services to fellow chil- dren's hospitals around the country. Connecticut Children's has also launched an innovation center to foster its own clinicians' commer- cial ideas and to collaborate with industry to pilot new healthcare technologies toward clinical trials. Shmerling also oversaw a reloca- tion of about 400 non-clinical em- ployees to the Candy Cane building in downtown Hartford in 2017, a move that freed up clinical space at the hos- pital's main campus and saved money. The Nashville native is well-known in the industry, having held manage- ment roles at children's hospitals in five states since 1979. He also chaired the board of the national Children's Hospital Association in 2014. Vincent Capece Jr. The number of standalone hos- pitals in Connecticut continues to dwindle, as growing health systems gobble them up year after year. Amid that landscape, Vin- cent Capece Jr., CEO of Middle- sex Health, is among the remaining half- dozen holdouts. That surely puts a target on his organiza- tion, as health systems sniff around for available as- sets that could further increase their market share, but Capece has kept his hospital and medical group in good shape, even as Connecticut giants Yale New Haven Health and Hartford HealthCare grow all around them. Capece has continued to invest in Middlesex, building a $28-million medical center in Westbrook in 2014 and expanding it in recent years. Capece was also a driving force behind the creation of a partnership with other independent hospitals called the Value Care Alliance, whose members have formed an accountable care organization and used their combined leverage to purchase discounted supplies. Kurt Barwis Another of the few independent hospitals remaining in Greater Hartford is Bristol Hospital, where Kurt Barwis has been at the helm as CEO for the past 14 years. For the leader of a one-hospital system, Barwis has not shied away from the spotlight. He's been outspoken, for example, in defending hos- pital executive salaries and on the challenges of staying inde- pendent in an ever-consolidating industry. Bristol Health, along with several other Connecticut hospitals, was set to be acquired by Texas-based Tenet Healthcare in 2014, but the deal fell apart and Barwis has kept the hospital operating on its own since then. He's continued to invest in capital projects like a 60,000-square-foot ambula- tory care center completed in 2019, and an ongoing $15-million overhaul of its emergency department that began just months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Barwis also has the unenviable bragging rights of being the only hospital CEO in Connecticut known to have tested positive for COVID-19. The hospital announced his posi- tive test in late March, just days be- fore the federal government reversed position and began recommending widespread use of face masks to prevent transmission of the virus. Barwis' case was mild, and he was back to work in less than a week. Mark Masselli Mark Masselli has been a major innovator in the community health center space. He started Middletown-based Com- munity Health Center as a standalone clinic in 1972 with a group of Wes- leyan University students and community activists, and built it into a leading federally qualified, inde- pendent, nonprofit health- care provider in the state, offering comprehensive primary care services in medicine, dentistry, and behavioral health to more than 145,000 people, particularly lower-income underserved patients. He's been known for bring- ing an entrepre- neurial spirit to CHC, which is coming off a major expansion in 2019. Last year the health system debuted a $47-million expan- sion, adding three new healthcare sites totaling 81,400 square feet — in Hartford, Middletown and Stamford — that expanded primary care access to an additional 16,000 low-income patients. Masselli is also active in global human rights issues having worked with the Dalai Lama on issues fac- ing the Tibetan people. Lynn Ricci and Sonja LaBarbera Connecticut's short-term acute care hospitals, particularly the big ones, tend to get the most media attention, especially during the COVID-19 surge in April, when they were on the front lines. But those 28 facilities are far from the only hospitals in Connecticut. Connecticut's two long-term care hospitals — the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain and Wallingford's Gaylord Spe- cialty Healthcare — play a crucial role in provid- ing care and rehabilitation for elderly and seriously injured or ill patients. At the respec- tive helms of HFSC and Gay- lord are CEOs Lynn Ricci and Sonja LaBarbera. Combined, the two care provid- ers — which have a different mix of patients and payers — serve tens of thousands of inpatients and outpatients each year and bring in Matthew Barrett, President and CEO, Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities James Shmerling, CEO, Connecticut Children's Medical Center Vincent Capece Jr., CEO, Middlesex Health Mag Morelli, President, LeadingAge Connecticut Kurt Barwis, President & CEO, Bristol Health Mark Masselli, President & CEO, Community Health Center Lynn Ricci, CEO, Hospital for Special Care Sonja LaBarbera, CEO, Gaylord Specialty Healthcare 13 16 14 15 12 11

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