CEO Update 27 June

Dear Colleagues,

It's hard to believe it, but we are at the end of our fiscal year (July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026). As I reflect on the last year, you are perhaps wondering what is top of mind for me. I would divide my thoughts into four main categories: 1) pride about the accomplishments UConn Health has achieved, 2) opportunities for next year (FY 27), 3) challenges for next year and 4) risks going forward.

Key Accomplishments (FY 26)

Excellence

We were able to continue our stellar performance in quality and patient experience for which we received multiple accolades, including our 11th consecutive A grade for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group, and awards from Healthgrades and Newsweek.

On the academic side, we graduated another 263 physicians, dentists, and scientists, and nearly every medical and dental student seeking a residency matched into one.

Expansion

We were able to plan and implement an expansion merger and acquisition strategy that included creating a UConn Health Community Network, with its first hospital UConn Health Waterbury Hospital. This sounds simple on paper but it included due diligence, political advocacy, and over 250 integration workstreams including HR, legal, IT, marketing, communications, clinical services, transitional agreements with Prospect, and so much more. Because of the timing of the Prospect bankruptcy, this work occurred over a compressed timeline.

As if this wasn't enough, shortly after the UConn Health Waterbury Hospital acquisition we also brought the Solnit adolescent behavioral health hospital under the John Dempsey Hospital (JDH) license. This gave us an opportunity to increase our Medicaid services, which is core to our mission and reimbursement, but also has given us the opportunity to partner with the Department of Children and Families to elevate the care for this vulnerable population of patients.

Project Thrive Strategies

You've all heard of Project Thrive. which helped us find $46.7 million to balance our budget for FY 26. Again this might sound simple but it took a great amount of work by each of you even if you didn't realize it. A large part of Project Thrive's success was due to clinical revenues. As you can see below, this required detailed planning and implementation of such initiatives as the infusion unit in the Connecticut Tower.

Managed Care

For the first time in our history we took an appropriately tough stance in our negotiations with managed care companies as we advocated for fair reimbursement. Just to put a fine point on this, our termination and near terminations with managed care plans were a first for us. The result was that we had successful negotiations with four plans: ConnectiCare, Cigna, United Healthcare and Aetna.

Philanthropy

In partnership with the UConn Foundation our fundraising for this year was impressive. We targeted $19 million and exceeded $25 million.

Key Opportunities (FY 27)

I am very excited about FY 27 across several fronts. The first is the upcoming launch of UConn Health's Center for AI Innovation. We received a donor commitment of $10 million to launch a transformational center that I believe will help us to bring value to ourselves, the state and the nation well beyond UConn Health's size and funding.

Another opportunity is the further expansion of our UConn Health Community Network, with the future addition of Bristol Hospital and Day Kimball Hospital. This opens multiple clinical opportunities not just for those hospitals and their patients but for UConn Health Farmington and satellite locations.

To streamline referrals and hospital transfers across the network, I am excited about a referral center being developed by Anne Horbatuck's team, specifically Concettina Tolomeo (center director) and Amy Chmielewski (university director), and a hospital transfer center being developed by Caryl Ryan's team.

Challenges (FY 27)

Our main challenge this next year relates to a funding gap of $54.3 million that we will need to find through cost savings and revenue enhancements - in other words, a Project Thrive 2.0.

Risks (FY 27)

There is always a business risk associated with our expansion strategy, so implementing growth strategies for UConn Health Waterbury Hospital are essential. We also have reputational risks with our new hospital partners, which means we must emphasize quality and safety. Fortunately, we at UConn Health have a deep expertise in the areas of growth and quality/safety.

You may recall last year a new state law to establish a Neuromodulation Center of Excellence at our Brain and Spine Institute, intended to serve veterans who are recovering from stroke, under the leadership of Dr. Christopher Conner. Dr. Conner is among few neurosurgeons in the country with expertise in Vivistim, an intervention shown to accelerate stroke survivors' ability to regain function in their arms. I bring this up because next week, we are expecting Gov. Lamont and Sen. Blumenthal here for a tour the operating room and a news conference to highlight the launch of this program, which is scheduled to start seeing patients in July.

I'd like to take a moment to remember Dr. Edward Pesanti, longtime faculty member, who recently passed away. Dr. Pesanti first joined our faculty in 1982 and retired from full-time service in 2014. He was a renowned leader in the field of infectious diseases and will be remembered as an outstanding clinician, researcher, educator, and perhaps most of all, mentor. If you haven't yet, please take a moment to read the tribute to Dr. Pesanti from Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus, chief of our Infectious Diseases Division.

On a happier note, I'd like to share this patient letter (edited for privacy):

Good morning… [recently] my wife was induced into labor and gave birth to our first child [the following morning].

I commend your staff for their empathy, professionalism, and hard work. L/D nurses Jacki, Jamie, and Gabby gave elite care and reassurance to my wife who was nervous and unsure about delivery. Their efforts made her calm and comfortable.

We believe workplace recognition is important. My wife and I are overly impressed with the level of patient care given and we cannot thank them enough!!

Thank you to Jacki Vostinak, assistant nurse manager, and staff nurses Jamie DeMatteo and Gabby Thayer for your outstanding care!

And I'd like to close this week with an acknowledgement of our PAWS awardees. We held our spring and summer awards ceremony June 18 and presented eight Team PAWS awards and 28 individual PAWS Awards (plus six more for our Nightingale Nurses). Each recipient has a great story, and you can read any and all of them through their nominations, available on the PAWS page on The Hub. You can watch the awards ceremony there as well.

Congratulations and thank you to our awardees, and thank you, to everyone reading this, for all of your great work.

Andrew C. Agwunobi, MD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer

EVP for Health Affairs

UConn Health

Dear Dr. Andy

Is it possible to have the drivers from the courier service park in the 195 Farmington Ave. lot instead of Lot 3? They are only switching their cars to drive around for the day, so it isn't as impactful as to where they park. It would free up 20-30 spots that the employees that have to walk to the Outpatient Pavilion or Musculoskeletal Institute would appreciate having.