Malloy Unveils Health Center Plan

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Tuesday announced plans for an $864 million renovation and expansion for the UConn Health Center that he said could create thousands of jobs and position the state as a leader in bioscience.

It's the fourth plan for the health center in the past five years, but Malloy said his proposal is substantially different. For one thing, it's nearly twice as big. And he pitched it as an economic development initiative, not just a plan to stabilize the university's hospital.

"What we're talking about today is a different vision of the future, one which allows us to tap into the great work that's already been done on this campus, on the campus at Storrs and on the campus at Yale," Malloy told a crowd at the health center's Farmington campus. "In some senses, we are creating our own Research Triangle in our little state of Connecticut."

Malloy's plan, called Bioscience Connecticut, preserves several pieces of a plan from last year to renovate and expand UConn's John Dempsey Hospital and fund initiatives involving other area hospitals. It also would increase the health center's capacity for bioscience research, add more clinician-scientists and basic scientists, build an outpatient center, increase the class sizes of the medical and dental schools by 30 percent and create loan forgiveness programs for graduates who pursue primary care.

"Let me say very clearly, Bioscience Connecticut is entirely different from prior proposals that involved the health center. Could not be more different," incoming UConn President Susan Herbst said. "While they were principally in the past intended to secure the health center's financial footing, this initiative is primarily focused on using the health center to achieve state economic and health care objectives, creating well-paying jobs and linking the university, the economy and public health."

The health center, which includes the UConn medical and dental schools, John Dempsey Hospital and research laboratories, has run multimillion-dollar deficits several times in the past decade-- although its finances have stabilized recently--and UConn leaders have said Dempsey is too small and outdated to be financially viable. Previous plans to address its shortcomings have met with opposition from other area hospitals, which compete fiercely for privately insured patients.

Hospital leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Malloy criticized the previous plans as "too small, too late, too little," and said they did not do enough for the economy.

His plan would be funded with $254 million in new bonding, $338 million in previously approved bonding, and $69 million from the health center--expected to come from health center revenues and fundraising. Another $203 million for an ambulatory care center would come from private financing.

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