The University of Connecticut Health Center and Hartford Hospital are preparing to seek legislative approval in January for a $475 million, 250-bed hospital to replace UConn's John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington.
In an interview with the Hartford Business Journal, UConn president Michael Hogan said the plan calls for about 250 beds, slightly more than Dempsey's 224. Last year the two institutions proposed a new $495 million, 352-bed facility, but critics said such a facility would dominate local competition by attracting the region's privately insured patients.
Hogan said that the "scaled-down" hospital would pose less of a competitive threat, noting "we wouldn't really be expanding the bed capacity by any substantial amount."
Hogan said negotiations with Hartford Hospital have gone "a little off schedule," adding that details regarding bond funding, employee benefits and the involvement of area hospitals still need to be hammered out.
The new target date for an agreement is the first week of January 2009. Still unresolved is a suitable agreement that will satisfy unionized state workers and non-unionized private employees.