According to a report in the New Haven Register, Connecticutt-based Gaylord Hospital’s decision to close its four sleep centers, and sell its North Haven facility to Yale-New Haven Hospital, could make it difficult for New Haven patients to access continuing care, while also increasing the cost.
Vincent Petrini, a vice president at the hospital, said in the article that they will provide the same transportation options for patients that Gaylord now provides to maintain access, and the cost will be assessed the same way Gaylord now does it.
Reporter Mary E. O’Leary writes that two officers from the state Office of Health Care Access held a hearing on the termination of sleep center services by Gaylord at Gateway Community College in New Haven, where the majority testifying and in attendance either worked at Yale-New Haven Hospital or Yale University.
“The union says the issue isn’t the closing of a facility, but a three-way transaction in which Y-NH will take over the sleep medicine practice from Yale Medical School and is in the process of purchasing Gaylord’s North Haven sleep center assets,” writes O’Leary. “A worker at the medical school said she was told to tell patients that their medical records would be sent to Y-NH which would open locations in North Haven and Madison.”
The consolidation of hospitals and the purchase of physician practices (and its effect on patients) is part of a national discussion. O’Leary points out that New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said the Union should not make a decision on Gaylord until it has more information on the impact on low-income residents and particularly African-American men, who have higher instances of sleep apnea.