Local opposition forms “Save Sharon Hospital” group

By Stephen Melville

In July of 2017 the state of Connecticut officially approved the sale of Sharon Hospital to Health Quest Systems, returning the hospital to nonprofit status after 15 years as part of the for-profit Essent Healthcare of Connecticut. The purchase was supported by a $3 million grant from the Foundation for Community Health. The Foundation for Community Health is a private foundation created from charitable funds held by Sharon Hospital when it became a for-profit hospital; it serves17 towns in western Columbia and Duchess and northwestern Litchfield County, including Norfolk. Barely a year on, things are not turning out as expected.

In early July Health Quest confirmed rumors that it would close its birthing suites effective July 31, citing both difficulties in hiring appropriate doctors and a declining birth rate. In the immediate furor that followed, it also came out that Health Quest, which also operates hospitals in Poughkeepsie, Rhinebeck and Carmel, had begun filing in June for approval of its own merger with the nonprofit Western Connecticut Health Network.

Opposition to the closing of the birthing suites sprang up immediately. Among the claims advanced by the Save Sharon Hospital group are, first, that Health Quest’s assertions about difficulty in recruiting doctors involve fundamental distortions of the actual situation in order to create the appearance of “safety concerns” that would allow the shutdown to proceed without needing state approval, and, second, that the birth rate projections are wrong, and that accepting them as a basis for closing the birthing suites will in fact inevitably lead to a decrease in younger families moving to the region.

An open meeting of the Sharon selectmen with representatives of Sharon Hospital and Save Sharon Hospital at the end of July ended with an agreement for a further meeting at the end of August. In the meantime, Save Sharon Hospital gathered over 400 signatures on a letter sent to Attorney General George Jepsen, as well as to Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy and Office of Health Care Access requesting a thorough review of Health Quest’s conduct as well as the pending Certificate of Need that would permit its merger with Western Connecticut Health Network.

Both state representative Brian Ohler and his Democratic opponent in this fall’s election, Maria Horn, have played notably strong roles in opposing Health Quest’s plans. Ohler demanded an immediate meeting with Health Quest management that has resulted in an indefinite deferral of the proposed closing. Horn has focused on the apparent violation of the explicit terms of the initial sale’s approval, particularly Health Quest’s commitment “to maintain current services for a period of three years, subject to patient demand and the availability of physicians and other clinical providers and staff.” Both are insisting that the Office of Health Care Access hold public hearings on the proposed closing of delivery services as well as the merger with Western Connecticut Health Network.

The issues of coverage and volume currently being raised around maternity services at Sharon Hospital represent a deep, recurrent problem in health care for rural and aging populations and figured more generally in the justification and approval of Essent’s sale of the hospital to Health Quest a year ago.

It is early days yet, and the birthing suites remain open for the time being. Good resources for keeping up-to-date with this developing story are local radio—Marshall Miles at Robin Hood Radio (88.1 and 91.9 FM) has been hosting regular interviews with participants—and the Save Sharon Hospital Facebook page.