NewHavenBIZ

12 n e w h a v e n B I Z | O c t o b e r 2 0 2 1 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m HHC plans to make approximately $175 million in total investments in the Fairfield County region, including improvements to Bridgeport's St. Vincent's Medical Center (SVMC), which it acquired in 2019. "[St. Vincent's] market share has grown by 1.1% since being acquired by HHC, further bolstering HHC's statewide presence," Fitch noted in its analysis. Kevin Holloran, a senior director at Fitch and head of its nonprofit hospitals and health systems analysts group, said he sees growth in Fairfield as logical. "One reason for expansion is you're chasing the payer mix or you are chasing the population," Holloran said. According to the most recent census, Fairfield County topped the state in adding 40,590 people in the last decade, making up for declines elsewhere. at trend is likely to By Liese Klein P erhaps it's a family that just moved up from Manhattan. Or a young couple settling into married life in Stamford. Or a single person who just moved to Shelton for a new job. How or why they got there, tens of thousands of people have moved to Fairfield County in recent years — and the state's hospital systems have noticed. "I can't imagine a much more competitive landscape anywhere in the country," said William M. Jennings, president of the Fairfield region for Hartford HealthCare. Jennings was named to the role in May, having served as executive vice president for Yale New Haven Health and CEO of Bridgeport Hospital earlier in his career. Jennings was drawn to the job at Hartford HealthCare in part because of the system's dynamic growth in Fairfield, which includes the opening of 42 care sites and hiring of more than 200 medical staff in the past decade. In the last year alone, patient volumes at HHC's Fairfield County urgent care centers have grown 400%, Jennings said. "at's cause to celebrate because the community is responding to our level of service, our level of quality, our convenience and our accessibility," Jennings said. "It's proving that we're fulfilling the mission and vision." HHC's aggressive Fairfield expansion helped prompt Fitch Ratings to recently affirm its A-plus rating on the system's approximately $1.3 billion in revenue bonds in September. Analysts also noted that HHC has increased its market share in the county to 32.7% from 9.5% in 2008, and now ranks second statewide only to Yale New Haven Health, according to Fitch. continue as people continue to work remotely and move out of New York City, and companies continue to set up shop in Stamford on the Gold Coast. Ambulatory care accelerates Yale New Haven Health has long considered Fairfield County "an important part of our geography," said Cynthia Sparer, senior vice president for ambulatory services. e state's largest medical provider has an ongoing commitment to making its services more convenient to Fairfield residents, she added. At YNHH's southern Fairfield base, Greenwich Hospital, services have expanded in recent years to include a Yale Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, Yale New Haven Children's Hospital Pediatric Specialty Center and expanded Smilow Cancer Hospital care. (Efforts to establish a formal Smilow Center in Greenwich were thwarted by neighborhood opposition in August.) Across its geographic range, ambulatory care — or medical services performed on an outpatient basis outside of admission to a hospital — is playing a growing role at Yale New Haven Health. "e pandemic just brought it into relief: People need access to health care and people want that access to be as simple and straightforward and uncomplicated and with as little risk as possible," Sparer said. "People enjoy going to ambulatory facilities that are organized for them." YNHH's newer sites include urgent care centers in Fairfield and Shelton. Affiliated PhysicianOne Urgent Care centers operate in Norwalk, Ridgefield, Stratford and Brookfield. Fairfield-adjacent Milford Hospital also merged with YNHH in 2019, adding ambulatory capacity that is easily accessible from the I-95 corridor. e health system has since invested $17 million in the facility, now known as "e Milford Campus of Bridgeport Hospital." Health systems across the nation are pouring resources into ambulatory facilities like urgent care and surgical PHOTO | GARY LEWIS Moving out of the hospital Here's a list of medical procedures previously done on an inpatient basis at Yale New Haven Hospital but now done on an outpatient basis in an ambulatory care facility. • Hip replacement • Knee replacement • Lumbar discectomy • Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion • Thyroid surgery • Parathyroid surgery • Foot/Ankle procedures • Lumpectomy/mastectomy • Breast reduction • Hysterectomy • Laproscopic cholecystectomy • Robotic hernia repair Fairfield County becomes major competing ground for Yale New Haven Health, Hartford HealthCare Gold Coast Hartford HealthCare acquired St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport in 2019. Cynthia Sparer William M. Jennings is the president of Hartford HealthCare's Fairfield region, which is being eyed for significant future growth.

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