An Open Letter to Our Governor and Legislators

***UPDATE | 6/29/2015*** (Scroll down for original content)

THANK YOU, NORTHEAST CONNECTICUT

The overall state budget cuts to Day Kimball Healthcare have been eliminated! DKH has been awarded $3 million in additional funding in each of the next two years through a state fund developed specifically to provide extra support to small community hospitals. These funds will offset the $5 million in cuts to DKH that were ultimately included in the passed state budget.

This victory is shared by us all. It is owed to the support of all in our community who made their voices heard through thousands of e-mail and paper pledges in our I AM New Day campaign. And it is due to the tireless work of Senator Mae Flexer and Representatives Daniel Rovero, Christine Rosati and Paul Brycki in taking our message to Hartford and advocating for the lives and livelihood of Northeast Connecticut throughout the state budget process.

Throughout the budget process we've stressed that, as a small community hospital and healthcare system, Day Kimball is critical to both the personal health and economic health of our communities.

The awarding of these funds will help us to continue in our mission to keep Northeast Connecticut healthy.

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The Day Kimball family is in a fight for our lives – and the livelihood of The Quiet Corner. This family includes the 1,400 employees including 75 employed physicians; 200 physicians on the hospital medical staff; 93,000 residents of the 13-towns we serve; the businesses located in our region – and you. It’s time to ask ourselves, what does Northeast Connecticut look like if Day Kimball Healthcare is destroyed? The proposed state budget before the legislators at this time makes this a very real question.

As one of the largest employers in our region, Day Kimball Healthcare not only sustains the health and wellbeing of the Northeast Connecticut residents, it also sustains the lifestyle of the communities we serve. Without Day Kimball, what would happen to the housing market? (82% of employees live in our community.) What would happen to the main streets of our communities? (Day Kimball provides an annual economic impact of $230 million.) What would happen to our school systems – our public schools and our community college? (If the community shrinks, the education system also contracts.) The loss of various clinical services at Day Kimball will be the domino that triggers an avalanche of devastating change to our region.

Couple these sweeping effects on our community with the very real impact this will also have on the health care system. Imagine Day Kimball reduced to an emergency department with limited hospital beds, simply available to stabilize patients before transferring to another hospital. Or primary care – the force behind Day Kimball’s transformation to provide the right care at the right time in the right place – drastically shrunk, if it exists at all, without the ability to recruit physicians. Plus as Medicaid continues to drastically cut reimbursements to obstetrics care, we will no longer be able to employ OB/GYN physicians or support a birthing center at the hospital. This is what’s at risk for the community.

The current FY2016-2017 budget proposal for State of Connecticut includes at least an additional $12 million reduction to Day Kimball Healthcare through reduced Medicaid reimbursements and increased taxes. The Day Kimball family cannot survive – never mind thrive – with these types of severe and consistently increasing reductions to pay for the care of the some of the State’s neediest families.

For 120 years Day Kimball Healthcare has kept its promise to Northeast Connecticut to deliver high quality health care to the community. Will the Governor and our Legislators keep their promises to be good stewards of the State of Connecticut? Because without our health and our homes, what else matters?

Sincerely,

Joseph Adiletta, Chairman of the Board
Robert Smanik, President & CEO
Day Kimball Healthcare