Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MAY 5, 2025 15 EST. 1869 | MEMBER FDIC Community Banking Lives Here ™ It's your bank. Your choice. Your Dime. Local Businesses Deserve Their Own Local Lenders Working together, local lenders and business owners can help their neighborhoods thrive. If your community matters to you, come join our community. EST. 1869 | MEMBER FDIC Community Banking Lives Here ™ Colchester | East Lyme | Glastonbury | Ledyard | Manchester | Montville New London | Norwich: Broadway, Corporate, Norwichtown Stonington Borough | Taftville | Vernon | Westerly, RI dime-bank.com • 860.859.4300 • NMLS ID # 493990 "The biggest challenge is that health care is hard, right?" she said. "When you look at it from an industry perspective, there's a lot of residual PTSD from COVID. I think the biggest challenge is the workforce. Not only shortages, but development." To address that, she wants to incorporate and leverage artificial intelligence into everyday care. "Leverage technology, have a digital 'front door,' … and create and inspire the next generation of health- care workers, leaders and clinicians," she said. Also on her challenges list, not surprisingly, is reimbursement rates. According to the Connecticut Hospital Association, hospitals in the state receive reimbursement from Medicaid for only about 62% of what it costs to provide care to those patients. The reimbursement rate for Medicare is 74%. As a result, Connecticut hospitals in 2023 incurred losses of $1.43 billion in Medicaid and $1.38 billion in Medicare, according to the CHA. "We're being nipped and tucked anywhere you face it," Durand said. "So, whether you're a hospital in Connecticut, or you're a hospital somewhere else in the country, reim- bursement is definitely a challenge." A third concern she cited is burnout, though she said she doesn't like that word. "Whether it's physician burnout, clinical burnout, you could be working in the finance department and be burned out," Durand said. "These jobs require a lot of emotional and physical stamina. Regulations are constantly evolving, whether it's Medicare, Medicaid or the commercial side of the business. It's a constant grind and it takes a lot of grit." The key, she added, is to "adapt and overcome. It takes a certain kind of individual that wants to work in the healthcare environment today." What she doesn't consider a signif- icant challenge, though, are the two new long-term care facilities being developed in Danbury and Waterbury. "I've always thought competition is good because it helps you elevate your brand and what you do," she said. The two new hospitals also will be much smaller than HSC, with each having about 40 beds. Infectious enthusiasm Durand certainly has enthusiasm for her work, something that Chief Nursing Officer Anne Wojskowicz describes as "infectious." While she enjoys working in health care, serving on the medical side was never really a goal, Durand said. Growing up in Putnam, the daughter of two teachers, Durand earned a degree in finance and financial management from Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, and an MBA from Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts. She returned to Connecticut and took her first healthcare job in home and hospice care, and then moved on to Day Kimball Hospital in her hometown, where she worked her way up to chief financial officer and senior vice president. Now living in Newington with her husband, Steve, who works in manu- facturing, Durand says they are "empty- nesters" since their two grown sons are now on their own. Asked about her experience at Newport Hospital, she said a highlight was raising $1.2 million in 15 minutes with the help of former Patriots receiver Julian Edelman. Yet, that was not her most surprising revelation. Since she has worked in hospital administration in both Connecticut and Rhode Island, she offered an observation about each state's certificate of need (CON) application process that likely would startle health officials here. In Connecticut, hospitals need to file a certificate of need — and get it approved by the Office of Health Strategy — in order to add certain expensive equip- ment, a new facility or conduct a merger or acquisition, among other things. While health administrators and others in the state have complained about the length of time a CON approval takes in Connecticut, Durand said Rhode Island's method is worse. "It's a much more arduous process, really," she said. "So, in Rhode Island you have to file what's called a letter of intent 45 days before, to let the state know. You can only submit a CON in January or June, with these very specific dates." "In Connecticut, it's a rolling process, which is much, much better," she added. "You can submit a CON at any time. So, I think that Rhode Island can learn a little bit from Connecticut." Nurses (from left) Amira Radcliffe, Giota Anastasopoulos and Bhartie Haribaran work in the pediatric acute-care unit at Hospital for Special Care in New Britain. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

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