YNHHS News Releases

Released June 2, 1997

Greenwich Hospital Plans Affiliation with Yale New Haven Health

GREENWICH, Conn. -- Greenwich Health Care System, the parent corporation for the Greenwich Hospital, and Yale New Haven Health System, the state's largest integrated health care delivery and financing system, today announced an agreement to form a strategic alliance.

Under the proposed affiliation agreement, Greenwich Hospital will preserve its local direction while gaining improved access to high quality clinical support for its key programs. The affiliation also strengthens its long-established collaborative arrangements with Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Yale University School of Medicine. The most recent example of this is Greenwich Hospital's association earlier this year with the Yale Cancer Center's Oncology Network, in which cancer patients gain access to advanced cancer treatments under the direction of their own local Greenwich physician.

The alliance with Greenwich is similar to the one between Bridgeport Hospital and the Yale New Haven Health System which was completed in July 1996. The boards of directors and medical staffs will remain separate and changes in the scope of services must be initiated and approved by the Greenwich Hospital board.

"This alliance will allow us to continue to provide high quality, value-driven health care services to our communities," said Frank A. Corvino, president and CEO of Greenwich Hospital. "The combination of our new facility and this alliance will ensure that our local health care system will remain on the cutting edge for the foreseeable future."

"The goal of a partnership is to become stronger by working more closely together. The affiliation of Greenwich Hospital and the Yale New Haven Health System will combine a strong, community hospital with the resources and support of a statewide integrated health care delivery and financing system. This affiliation will provide those patients served by Greenwich Hospital with access to an enhanced array of quality health care services," said Joseph A. Zaccagnino, president and CEO of the Yale New Haven Health System. "Our partnership with Greenwich Hospital is a significant step in the development of the Yale New Haven Health System in Fairfield County."

Founded in 1906, Greenwich Hospital is a 178-bed community hospital located in one of Connecticut's most historic towns. Greenwich Hospital offers a full array of clinical services and has a deep commitment to community health promotion programs. Affiliates include Greenwich Hospital Home Care, satellite medical offices and hospice.

Corvino said that Greenwich Hospital's affiliation with Yale New Haven Health will provide a variety of benefits to the hospital during a time of change and increased competition in the health care industry. Among the benefits for Greenwich Hospital that Corvino cited, the affiliation will:

• Maintain under local management a full service Greenwich Hospital, while affiliating with an outstanding health system, thereby providing patients with the highest quality medical care and outstanding clinical programs;
• Create a regional medical system that will manage health care costs and secure favorable contracts with HMOs and other managed care companies;
• Improve Greenwich Hospital's ability to attract new patients through broadened clinical programs and a strengthened primary care network;
• Provide Greenwich Hospital with access to networkwide information systems to improve access to care for patients and efficiency for physicians by limiting paperwork, securely transferring records when authorized, simplify billings and support clinical outcomes management;
• Offer the Greenwich community a stable, consistent and complete network of services regardless of their choice of insurance plans, as well as the option of easy access to the resources of an outstanding university teaching hospital and other components of the YNHHS network with the continuing freedom for referrals anywhere beyond the network;
• Create operating efficiencies through the need for duplicative capital expenditures;
• Strengthen the ability to attract the highest quality physicians to Greenwich Hospital.

Established in 1983, Yale New Haven Health System includes a full spectrum of hospital and health care services. It is the most fully integrated health care delivery and financing system in Connecticut. The system focuses on: strengthening hospital/physician relationships, managed care contracting and offering a full continuum of health care services and health insurance products. The system includes a New Haven-based health care delivery network with Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, which together form one of the country's premier medical centers, leading that network and a Bridgeport health care delivery network led by Bridgeport Hospital, a 425-bed teaching institution.

The system's range of services includes acute care hospitals, freestanding rehabilitation services, ambulatory surgery and outpatient diagnostic imaging centers, as well as primary care centers. YNHHS is a partner in a recently merged HMO and managed care plan with over 200,000 covered individuals throughout the state and has extensive corporate services available to its affiliates.

Yale New Haven Health Statistics