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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | M a y 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 13 power of hospitals working together. So it's been great." Part of O'Connor's effectiveness was his experience earlier in his career of helping guide the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans through the crisis of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "He's battle-tested and experienced," Jackson said. O'Connor also brings to his new job years of a unique bond with the system's home base, the city of New Haven. He was born at the Hospital of St. Raphael, where his mother worked as a nurse for 40 years. Aer a stint working as an emergency room tech during college, O'Connor returned to St. Raphael's in 2009 as president and CEO aer success in executive roles at Ochsner and Caritas Christi Health Care, a Massachusetts- based Catholic health system. Run by nuns and founded in 1907 as a Catholic alternative to Yale's hospital, St. Raphael's was struggling for survival in the 2000s as its costs increased and patient volumes fell. O'Connor worked behind the scenes to help bring about a merger with YNHH in 2012. He was named YNHH's executive vice president and chief operating officer when the deal closed. Eight years later, in October 2020, O'Connor was named president of the combined health system. O'Connor's rise through the YNHH ranks reflects the system's commitment to hiring from within, former CEO Borgstrom told Becker's Hospital Review shortly before she retired. "We've made a big commitment to internal talent development," Borgstrom said. "For people from the VP level up, what we've been doing is not just saying… who has a successor, but in order for these two or three people to be considered a successor for my role or any role, what's their talent development plan need to look like?" Singled out for praise at the time of both of his YNHH promotions was O'Connor's role in engineering growth initiatives including an affiliation with New London's Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in 2016 and the acquisition of Milford Hospital by Bridgeport Hospital in 2019. Most recently, he played a key role in a bid to buy two health networks comprising three hospitals in the Hartford area now owned by Prospect Medical Holdings. Now under regulatory review, the acquisition of Manchester Memorial, Rockville General in Vernon and Waterbury Hospital would allow for better care for patients across the state and future savings, O'Connor said. "We think we can bring some scale to the table," O'Connor said. "ere are efficiencies that we've experienced when we've brought places like Lawrence + Memorial and St. Raphael's into the health system that can decrease the costs." Expansion across the state With the three-hospital deal, YNHH will also be edging more directly into the coverage area of Hartford HealthCare (HHC), seen as its principal competitor in the state. On its part, HHC in recent months has opened outposts in Yale's backyard, including new urgent care centers in towns adjacent to New Haven. O'Connor said he doesn't consider HHC a competitor in the traditional sense, and that system's CEO, Jeff Flaks, is a friend from graduate school. "You can call him a competitor. But the missions are very much aligned," O'Connor said, adding that the two systems have collaborated closely during the pandemic emergency. Enhancing ties with the Yale School of Medicine and its world-class research will help YNHH compete across the state and beyond, O'Connor said. e recent growth of both YNHH and HHC, however, poses a challenge to healthcare affordability in the state, said Lynne Ide of the Universal Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit patient-advocacy group. Independent hospitals, which traditionally have provided lower-cost care, have dwindled from 31 operating in Connecticut in 2000 to only four in 2022. "What that creates is huge bargaining power for the systems when they are negotiating contracts with insurance carriers," Ide said. "It squeezes the patient, it squeezes the people who are paying the premiums and puts them in between the hospital network and the insurers vying with each other. Patients get stuck with higher prices." e effects of consolidation are exacerbated when independent physician practices are purchased by larger systems, Ide added, reducing patients' options and silencing voices of dissent. "ese two big behemoths are throwing their weight around in the marketplace," Ide said of YNHH and HHC's expansions. "And we haven't seen any evidence that that's going to benefit consumers as far as prices go." Several bills aimed at "anti- competitive practices" in health care were raised by the legislature this year, with one targeting contracts between large systems and insurers that effectively shut out smaller players. St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center also sued Hartford HealthCare in January in federal court over its aggressive expansion, and patients have sued alleging higher costs in HHC's coverage area. Hartford HealthCare has said both lawsuits are without merit. For O'Connor, the growth of large health networks improves care and access. "A stronger Hartford HealthCare makes us a stronger Yale New Haven," O'Connor said. "Healthy organizations across the state are better for all of our communities." n Lynne Ide Thomaston Savings Bank & CDC New England are proud to congratulate Viron Rondo Osteria & Counter Weight Brewing Co., on their SBA 2022 Small Business Week Awards! 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