DKH cuts 

restored;

new fund

will add

more help

PUTNAM – After months of doubt and concern about state funding for their hospital, Day Kimball officials June 29 lauded state Senator Mae Flexer (D- Killingly) and state Representatives Christine Rosati and Danny Rovero (D-Killingly) for fighting to not only restore the hospital cuts made in Governor Malloy’s proposed budget, but to give Day Kimball $1.6 million more over the next two years than they received in the last two-year state budget.

 “Our community rallied, our legislators rallied in the face of unprecedented budget challenges,” Day Kimball President and CEO Robert E. Smanik said today. “It is a new day at Day Kimball and for northeastern Connecticut because of your efforts. The new Small Hospital Fund erases the deficit created under the governor’s original budget, and for that we are extremely grateful.” 

 “This is truly good news for all of us today,” Day Kimball Board of Directors Chairman Joseph Adiletta said. “On behalf of the Day Kimball Board of Directors, I’d like to thank our community and our legislative delegation for continuing to support the mission of Day Kimball.”

 “We know how vital Day Kimball is to our community, and the three of us made that case in Hartford,” Sen. Flexer said, referring to herself and Reps. Rosati and Rovero. “It has been made easier because of all the great support we received from the hospital and the northeastern Connecticut community. With that support we were able to erase a deficit in state funding and provide an unprecedented increase of $1.6 million.” 

 “This is how it’s supposed to work – we hear your voices, we received your messages, we carried them to Hartford and we got a good outcome,” Rep. Rosati said. “We appreciate Day Kimball and we want to support you.”

 “The three of us, we worked very, very hard and we accomplished something,” Rep. Rovero said. “I think in the end Day Kimball Hospital will do better than most any hospital in Connecticut.”

 In the budget originally proposed by Governor Malloy back in February, a number of hospitals in Connecticut – including Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam – lost a lot of state funding.

 But after an outcry from Day Kimball officials and community members – including 2,500 petitions delivered to Gov. Malloy by Sen. Flexer and Reps. Rosati and Rovero asking for him to rescind his hospital cuts — Sen. Flexer and Reps. Rovero and Rosati fought for the creation of a brand new category of funding for state hospitals: the “small hospital fund.”

 This is a new pool of state funding for hospitals that have fewer than 160 beds, are not part of a larger hospital group and are not in contiguous towns (i.e. towns that share a common border). Only six hospitals in Connecticut qualify for that new “small hospital” pool of funding:  Day Kimball Hospital gets $3 million from this new pool of funding, which is $7 million more over the biennium than Gov. Malloy proposed in his February budget and $1.66 million more over the next two years than Day Kimball had received in the past two years.