Saturday, August 8, 2015

Remembering the Community in Community Hospitals

"Hartford Healthcare has forgotten that "community" is in our name."
So said one of the speakers at the community forum yesterday. 
Windham Community Memorial Hospital is a small rural community hospital in eastern Connecticut serving a large geographical area that had historically been economically depressed.
As a result it is not a rich hospital. 
About 6 years ago it was taken over by Hartford Healthcare, a large not for profit system. Until that time, the hospital struggled to balance the books but did so through good stuardship of both union and management. 
Now, the hospital is losing money. 

How can that be?

At both the round table discussion Thursday night and the forum Friday, we heard stories from staff, doctors, patients and community of profitable services being shifted from Windham to Hartford, thus diverting profit and creating the illusion that services were no longer needed due to low volume. 

What Hartford Hospital did not count on was a community that would fight back and a legislative team and a union that would stand with them. 

You can help
Please click on this link and sign our petition to save our services. 
You will be sending a message to Hartford Healthcare and all the "healthcare systems" to put Patients Before Profits. 

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