Eastern Connecticut Health Network

Description

About Eastern Connecticut Health Network
ECHN is a notforprofit health care system serving 19 towns in eastern Connecticut ECHN was formed in 1995 when Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital joined as partners By bringing together the experience and resources of all ECHN health care facilities we are able to invest more in stateoftheart medical technologies provide more convenient access to a wider range of health care services and continue to exceed the expectations of the patients and communities we serve

History

Here is a timeline of our history that marks major events from the roots of our hospitals in the early 1900s until present day
1908 William Henry Prescott of Rockville donates 50000 to establish the William Henry Prescott Fund designed to begin the financing for a Rockville City Hospital

1918 Spanish influenza strikes across the United States affecting about one in four of the entire population Many communities including Manchester and Rockville respond by establishing temporary emergency hospitals at Cheney Hall in Manchester and at the high school in the city of Rockville

1919 C Elmore Watkins heads a community campaign that raises over 165000 in less than a week for the construction of a hospital in Manchester

1920 Manchester Memorial Hospital opens on Haynes Street and is dedicated to the 45 Manchester men who lost their lives in World War I

1921 Rockville City Hospital opens on Prospect Street Patients were charged 2 a day

1923 The Womens Auxiliary later to become the Auxiliary of Manchester Memorial Hospital is formed

1943 The Womens Auxiliary later to become the Rockville General Hospital Auxiliary is formed

1945 Rockville City Hospital moves to the Maxwell mansion on Union Street where it remains today

19611962 Visitors from 20 states and 16 foreign countries visit MMH to observe its quotProgressive Patient Carequot plan which introduced the concept of an intensive care unit and stepdown care to the hospital world

1963 The first physical therapy service in the Rockville region is offered at Rockville City Hospital

1964 The name of Rockville City Hospital is changed to Rockville General Hospital

1969 MMH opens some of the first birthing rooms in a community hospital setting and is one of the first US hospitals to offer the Lamaze method of childbirth

1974 The RGH Maternity Care Center is established to provide pregnancyrelated medical and social services to pregnant women and teens with fees charged on a sliding scale based on ability to pay

1978 The film quotPromises in the Darkquot starring Marsha Mason is filmed partly on location at MMH

1978 The WIC Women Infants and Children program begins at RGH Funded by the US Department of Agriculture the program provides nutritious food and nutrition education to area residents in difficult financial circumstances

1983 MMH participates in the creation of a townwide emergency medical system for the town of Manchester leading to the establishment of a paramedic service

1987 RGH becomes the first hospital in eastern Connecticut to introduce bone densitometry equipment designed to detect osteoporosis at its earliest stages

1987 MMH establishes the CorpCare Occupational Medicine Service

1993 Maternity Department at RGH renovated to align with the LDRP concept of care providing women with labor delivery and recovery in the same suite

1993 The MMH Family Support and Resource Center begins operations The center is a fully funded grant program offering parent education programs and family support services

1993 Woodlake at Tolland nursing home opens on Shenipsit Lake Road in Tolland

1993 The Womens Center for Wellness opens

1994 MMH opens the first of three SchoolBased Health Centers in East Hartford

1994 Discussions begin on affiliating MMH and RGH

1995 Incorporators of MMH and Corporators of RGH several hundred community residents vote to merge the corporate parents of the two hospitals to form Eastern Connecticut Health Network these individuals become ECHN quotmembersquot and later quotcorporatorsquot

1995 The state Office of Health Care Access OHCA agrees to the merger of the hospitals corporate parents this is the first case in Connecticut of two financially sound institutions taking this step other mergers in the state occurred because one of the partners was in financial distress

1997 A regional radiation therapy service for cancer treatment is approved by state regulators it will be a joint venture between MMH RGH Hartford Hospital and Johnson Memorial Hospital

1997 The Glastonbury Wellness Center opens offering a Healthtrax fitness center physician office practices and ECHN services including CorpCare occupational health behavioral health and a variety of diagnostic tests

1997 PromptCare at RGH opens

1997 The medical staffs of MMH and RGH combine to create a single ECHN medical staff

1998 ECHN introduces Medical Matters a free 24hour physician referral line and program registration service

1999 The John A DeQuattro Community Cancer Center opens on the campus of MMH

2000 The ECHN Sleep Disorders Laboratory at MMH is granted accreditation by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and later expands from two beds to six

2000 ECHN signs an affiliation agreement with Connecticut Childrens Medical Center in Hartford to build upon the ECHN pediatricians longstanding relationship with the specialists at CCMC

2000 A new hospitalist program is introduced at MMH and is expanded several months later to RGH

2001 ECHNs comprehensive cancer services based at Manchester Memorial Hospital are granted approval by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons a designation given only to those facilities that have committed to providing the best in diagnosis and treatment of cancer

2001 ECHN introduces PET scanning services through a mobile unit that is at MMH every Monday PET positron imaging tomography is a revolutionary imaging technique used for early detection of cancer heart disease and neurological diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons and is particularly effective for the diagnosis of lung cancer

2001 Woodlake at Tolland becomes the new home to the Adult Day Center operated by Visiting Nurse amp Health Services of Connecticut Inc

2002 The ECHN Board of Trustees votes to approve proceeding with a capital campaign with a goal of between 6 million and 117 million on behalf of three capital expansion projects in the system the MMH Maternity Project the RGH Facility Upgrade and the Woodlake expansion

2002 The first cardiac catheterization procedure is performed in the new RGH Cardiac Catheterization Lab

2002 The new Centralized Sterile Processing facility located at 460 Hartford Turnpike becomes operational in late October initially serving MMH and subsequently serving RGH This facility is equipped with some of most modern sterilization technology available becoming one of the top three such facilities on the Eastern seaboard

2003 ECHN and Community CancerCare begin virtual simulation services for cancer patients at The John A DeQuattro Community Cancer Center

2003 Hightech digital mammography services are introduced at the Womens Center for Wellness This revolutionary equipment provides moredetailed images than with standard mammograms and reduces the need for women to return for additional views

2004 Phase One of the plans to expand and improve inpatient and outpatient services at Rockville General is completed The goal of this ambitious project is to create a larger and more comprehensive emergency department and clinical observation unit a special preparation and recovery area for outpatient services a stepdown unit for patients who move from intensive care and much more

2004 The SBM Charitable Foundation Family Birthing Center at Manchester Memorial Hospital is opened offering stateoftheart LDRP rooms and an enhanced level of services

2005 ECHN introduces neonatology services to the community to provide another dimension of care for babies born with special health challenges

2005 The Wound Healing Center at ECHN was established within MMH for patients whose wounds have had trouble healing

2006 ECHN opens buildings in Tolland and Coventry that house various medical services and physician offices

2006 The ECHN medical building at Evergreen Walk opens featuring stateoftheart medical imaging services a wide range of rehabilitation services including a special aquatic therapy pool and physician offices the Womens Center for Wellness also moves to this new building

2007 ECHN opens medical offices in Ellington Tolland and Manchester

2007 The Sleep Disorders Laboratory is expanded

2007 ECHN implements a electronic health record system at the MMH and RGH Emergency Departments improving efficiency and information flow within the ED and throughout the organization

2008 ECHN purchases the daVinci Surgical Robot System to bring robotic surgery to the community

2008 Manchester Memorial Hospital is among the nations top five percent of hospitals according to an independent study of mortality and complication rates for nearly 5000 hospitals released by HealthGrades the nations leading healthcare ratings company In addition both MMH and RGH were recipients of the HealthGrades Pulmonary Care Excellence Award

2008 A new fixedsite MRI unit arrives at Rockville General Hospital

2008 ECHNs Diabetes SelfManagement Program is awarded the American Diabetes Association Education Recognition Certificate

2008 The Verispan Integrated Health Network lists ECHN on the quotBest of the Restquot list for the top 100 Integrated Health Networks in the nation