St. Vincent’s seeks three more operating rooms, OHS presses for data on earlier notifications
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Summary
St. Vincent’s Medical Center asked Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy to approve three new operating rooms, arguing rising trauma volume, recruitment of specialist surgeons and high OR utilization justify expansion; OHS probed prior 2020/2023 notifications and requested updated block schedules and recruit lists within two weeks.
Hearing Officer Dan Chuka opened a March 18, 2025, contested-case hearing before the Office of Health Strategy on St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s certificate-of-need application to add three operating rooms at its Bridgeport main campus. The hospital says the work will cost $14,250,000 and is intended to create appropriately sized rooms to accommodate advanced imaging and robotic systems.
Attorney Joan Feldman of Shipman & Goodwin, representing St. Vincent’s Medical Center/Hartford HealthCare, said the hospital would need to close three small, “suboptimal” rooms if it does not receive approval for the three additional ORs. “Simply put, if the three additional ORs are not approved, the hospital have no choice, but to close 3 existing small, ill sized operating rooms,” Feldman said during opening remarks.
Dr. Shay Gregg, chair of surgery at St. Vincent’s, told OHS staff the hospital has experienced a “15 percent increase in trauma cases” year over year and has recruited 37 new surgeons since 2021. Gregg said those trends, together with lengthening case times for more complex procedures, have pushed audited prime‑time utilization into the low‑ to mid‑80s percent range and that the hospital projects utilization rising toward 85% (and, in some scenarios, higher) as new surgeons onboard.
Witnesses described the hospital’s block‑scheduling process, saying colored blocks on the schedule typically represent specialties and that an internal perioperative governance committee adjusts block assignments monthly. Hospital leaders said many colored blocks correspond to planned cases and that open white blocks are used for add‑ons and flexibility; OHS asked for an updated schedule with a legend showing which specialties correspond to colors.
OHS questioned the applicant about several technical issues: whether OR authorization in prior notifications equates to ORs being in operation, which ORs would be decommissioned if new ORs are not approved, and specifics of the hospital’s utilization calculations. Barbara Durdy, senior director of regulatory strategy for Hartford HealthCare, explained that prior 2020 and 2023 notifications were submitted as authorizations tied to the master facility plan and that implementation was delayed by the COVID‑19 pandemic. Hearing Officer Chuka said he was "very concerned" about interpreting statutory notice as equivalent to completed operational capacity but did not rule that the prior notices would be held against the applicant in this hearing.
Hospital planning witnesses acknowledged that some previously authorized ORs were not yet in service and said decommissioning smaller second‑floor rooms would be inefficient to restart; they argued that retaining those rooms is less costly than repeatedly closing and reopening them. The hospital also acknowledged it does not centrally track all measures of downstream delay but provided anecdotal and benchmark material showing bumping and cancellations are above published benchmark rates: Sam Behringer cited benchmark cancellation rates of roughly 1.7% and said St. Vincent’s is “bumping 2 to 4 cases a day,” amounting to a higher daily share than comparator benchmarks.
Procedurally, OHS took administrative notice of statewide planning documents and entered the submitted exhibits into the record. The parties agreed to an executive session for OHS staff to review confidential master facility‑plan materials and to keep that portion of the transcript designated confidential. No members of the public signed up to speak in the open session.
OHS asked the applicant to submit three late files within two weeks: the PowerPoint used during the presentation; an updated block‑schedule exhibit covering all ORs with a legend and clear identification of any ORs that would be decommissioned; and a list of the 37 recruited surgeons showing which are replacements versus new hires and broken down by specialty. The hearing officer said he will issue a written order on the late‑file requests the following day and left the record open for those late files before adjourning the hearing.
The hearing addressed technical and factual questions rather than making any final determinations. OHS staff signaled concern about relying on prior notifications that were not operationalized within the normal implementation period; the record now includes the hospital’s exhibits and the new, hospital‑promised late files that OHS requested for further analysis.
