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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 4, 2024 11 On The Record | Q&A Deborah Weymouth, the new CEO of Waterbury HEALTH, has a background in finance. Amid pending Yale New Haven Health deal, Weymouth takes on larger role with Prospect's struggling CT hospitals there in 2019. "And it's not just a me thing, by the way. It takes all of us to make it work," Weymouth said of her added responsibilities. "So, everybody's going to pick up a little bit." Before joining ECHN in 2019, Weymouth led UMass Memorial Healthcare, a three-hospital system in Massachusetts. Here's what else she had to say in a wide-ranging interview. The Q&A was edited for length and clarity. Q. What have been your major accomplishments so far with ECHN and Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals? A. We've done a number of things that you can count, metrics wise. (One example she provided is that ECHN has gone well over 700 days without a central line-associated bloodstream infection.) We've been profitable since our cyber event. And we've significantly reduced our reliance on travelers (freelance medical staff), down to just a handful, which has helped us in a variety of ways. We have really dramatically focused on and improved our patient experience. But at the end of the day, the big thing we've done is to address our culture. I know to lots of people, that's kind of a soft word. What is it? How do you define culture? But for us, we've really focused on that, and we've been able to implement some new service values. We've been able to hold each other accountable to maintaining those service values. And with that, we have really seen a turnaround in people understanding what their purpose in life is, and how it relates to what they do every day, … and how it impacts the next guy down the line. With this culture change, we've really built trust with our physi- cians, with our team members, and that has been incredibly helpful in difficult times. Q. When you mentioned reducing your reliance on travelers, that's traveling nurses, right? By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com D eborah Weymouth — who recently became president and CEO of Waterbury HEALTH, in addition to her role overseeing the Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) — says her background in finance helps her in a very specific way as she leads three of the state's 27 hospitals. While many hospital CEOs come from a medical/clinical back- ground, Weymouth has a degree in international finance. "What that entitles you to is the power of the question," she said during a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal. "So, I have the ability to ask any question of anyone at any time, because it's not assumed that I know it." She continued, "So, I can ask a clinical question or a process ques- tion … and the power in that ques- tioning ability is … kind of the secret sauce, if you will, because it really does help me get to understand the critical data." Weymouth faces some profound challenges as she steps in to succeed Dr. Justin Lundbye, who announced he is leaving as CEO of Waterbury HEALTH, effective March 8, to become president of Good Samaritan Hospital in Long Island, New York. Waterbury HEALTH and Water- bury Hospital, along with ECHN's Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, have been in limbo for more than a year as Yale New Haven Health attempts to acquire them from California-based for-profit operator Prospect Medical Holdings. State regulatory approval of the deal has stalled as Yale, Prospect and the state wrangle over the price and other conditions of the sale. Further complicating the deal, according to the CT Mirror, is that Yale has asked the state for $80 million over five years to help the Prospect-owned hospitals recover from a devastating cyberattack that began last August, with Waterbury Hospital especially hard hit. It has also been reported that Prospect Medical Holdings owes vendors tens of millions of dollars, and has not paid hospital user fees to the state since March 2022, a debt of $67 million. Prospect's Connecticut hospitals have experienced uneven financial performances in recent years. In fiscal 2022, Waterbury Hospital recorded a $9.2 million operating deficit, while Manchester Memorial reported an $8.8 million surplus. Rockville had a $561,029 deficit, while Prospect's overall Connecticut operations reported a $19.9 million operating loss in fiscal 2022, according to the latest financial data available from the Office of Health Strategy. Weymouth said the pending sale is critical because it will provide the smaller community hospitals she currently oversees with access to a wider array of specialists and other services affiliated with Yale New Haven Health, which generated $6.1 billion in revenue in fiscal 2022. By comparison, Prospect's Connecticut operations generated $593.7 million in revenue that same year. Weymouth didn't share any updates on the potential sale. She also said she hasn't been given assurances that she will be retained should the deal go through. She did say she recently met with senior leaders at Waterbury HEALTH, which has operated independently from ECHN, even though the systems share the same parent company. Weymouth said she can handle overseeing a third hospital, partly because she's built a strong lead- ership team at ECHN since arriving DEBORAH WEYMOUTH CEO Eastern CT Health Network, Waterbury HEALTH Education: Bachelor's degree in education and rehabilitation, Springfield College; MBA in international finance, University of Phoenix Prospect Medical Holdings CT operating performance OPERATING SURPLUS (OR LOSS) Prospect Medical Holdings CT's operations include Manchester Memorial, Rockville General and Waterbury hospitals. | Source: Office of Health Strategy $15M $10M $5M 0 -$5M -$10M -$10M -$20M 2019 2020 2021 2022