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The Ambulatory Surgery Center at Winsted Health Center
By Dick Ackermann, Winsted
The Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) at the Winsted Health Center was "state-of-the-art" when completed by Charlotte Hungerford Hospital four years ago. Charlotte Hungerford spent something in the neighborhood of $1 million for this particular renovation. This was considered a wise investment by all concerned.
We should never forget that the healthcare business is a business. No business will continue for very long if revenues do not equal or exceed expenses. Emergency rooms usually run at a loss. Some other services usually run at a profit. Ambulatory surgery is considered a winner.
Charlotte Hungerford committed itself to providing health care to the 25,000 people in the area previously served by the bankrupt Winsted Memorial Hospital. For this we should all be grateful. We should also be pleased that Charlotte Hungerford has good business sense. We should not, however, expect Charlotte to subsidize our local health care forever. Expecting this to happen is like believing in the tooth fairy. If Charlotte Hungerford has serious financial difficulties in the future and their presence in Winsted only adds to their problem, they will certainly stop providing services here. Commissioner Gorman has publicly stated that he would insist that the emergency room at the Health Center be closed in such circumstances. Being named on the Certificate of Need will not matter. If the existence of a money-losing venture in Winsted jeopardized the viability of Charlotte Hungerford, the commissioner would be negligent if he did not act to close it. What reasonable person would expect otherwise?
Back to the Ambulatory Surgery Center. Shortly after the Health Center opened, Dr. Fred Hyde spoke glowingly about the quality of the ASC and how it would not only bring much-needed revenues from the surgeries performed, but would also add to the use of the lab and x-ray departments. The Health Center would become better known and better used because of the wonderful new ASC. A win-win situation for all concerned.
But surgeons did not flock to the new ASC. Dr Hyde said that if only these surgeons would look at it, they would certainly use it. At that point, a corporator suggested that the corporators could prepare a dinner for these potential users and their spouses without using any Foundation money. The corporators would provide the funds. Dr. Hyde said, "That's a great idea. I'll take care of it." He didn’t take care of it. The ASC continued to languish.
We have heard that some physicians did not wish to travel the extra distance to the Winsted Health Center. Probably true, at least for a few. We also heard that physicians at Charlotte Hungerford would resent the use of the ASC by others who did not participate in the usual duties connected to Charlotte Hungerford. Maybe also true. If so, why wasn't the problem made public? Maybe someone could have proposed a solution.
Later a group of orthopedic surgeons proposed to make use of the ASC for three days per week. Charlotte Hungerford liked the idea. The Board of Trustees put obstacles in the way. Some were concerned that the nonprofit status of the Health Center would be compromised by the use of the ASC by a for-profit organization of surgeons. Considering that the ER is staffed by a similar group of specially trained physicians, this is hard to understand. Moreover, at that very time Charlotte Hungerford was in the business of selling laundry services to other hospitals around the state.
Some of the trustees did not agree with that decision. Apparently they were in the minority.
When Commissioner Gorman held his hearing at the Town Hall, he asked what the barriers were to the proposed use of the ASC. Dr. Hyde responded that there were qualms of ideology involved. He did not explain what those qualms of ideology were. Dr. Hyde later went on to say that the Board of Trustees eventually swallowed their qualms but, by that time, the steam had gone out of the orthopedic physicians' interest in operating out of the Health Center.
We don't know what those qualms were and what the swallowing signified. Only two thoughts come to mind: (1) the board realized their qualms were misplaced and the board was not about to admit any error; or, (2) they still believed in their qualms but were willing to risk the nonprofit status of the Health Center by accepting the proposal. There has been no explanation published to date.
The Commissioner has now removed the Ambulatory Surgical Center from the Certificate of Need. Who was responsible?
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