Johnson Health Network

History

History
During the 1980s few health care organizations throughout the United States were branching out by creating subsidiaries and Johnson Memorial Medical Center JMMC known then as Johnson Memorial Hospital JMH was one of the first to bring this type of business structure to Connecticut Early in the decade Johnson Health Care Johnson Development Fund and Wellcare were added to JMMCs existing hospital Soon after the organization opened Connecticuts first freestanding hospitalaffiliated outpatient surgery center Johnson Surgery Center JSC In the intervening years JMMC has continued expanding services to meet the communitys needs

Evergreen Health Care Center EHCC which opened as a nursing home and quickly added rehabilitation services was included as an entity in 1989 In November 2008 a 30bed Memory Support Unit for those living with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia was added to EHCC

After constructing EHCC maternity services were reinstated at JMH Concurrently two additional affiliates were added Johnson Professional Associates created to recruit and retain specialized physicians and Johnson Occupational Medicine Center JOMC founded to provide clinical care and education to the workforce

It was not long before another piece of JMMC blossomed Home amp Community Health Services a visiting nurse service was integrated as a result of an upward trend of moving health care into the home

JMMC also developed a regional radiation oncology center Community CancerCare in partnership with Hartford Hospital Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital

In the late 1990s JMMCs entities were referred to as quotJohnson Health Networkquot in an effort to acknowledge its full continuum of care

The new millennium brought many changes within the hospital After opening the doors of an outpatient behavioral health facility and adding 7000 square feet to its Same Day Surgery Unit just before 2000 rooms in the MedicalSurgical Unit were refurbished to maximize patient comfort in 2001 In that same year JMHs Sleep Laboratory was accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Six years later the Laboratory expanded its services when JMHs offsite Sleep Center opened in Enfield

JMHs Emergency Department ED introduced ED Express a service that reduces the waittime for patients with nonlifethreatening illnesses or injuries In 2006 JMH representatives and community leaders broke ground for the construction of the Mark E Quigley Emergency Department which would offer triple the space of the existing ED and provide the community with the most advanced emergency care in the state Fourteen months after its groundbreaking the new ED welcomed its first patient

JMMC made many changes to ensure that the community had access to the most convenient and highestquality care JSC was renovated to make way for a diagnostic imaging center where patients would trade visiting several facilities to receive care at one location Same Day Surgery at the hospital boasted changes of its own two rooms were remodeled to feature cuttingedge clinical technologies

In 2008 JMMC began a turnaround effort and filed for Chapter 11 protection for JMH EHCC and the parent company which was known then as Johnson Memorial Corporation While focusing on the financial health of the organization the JMMC team expanded and implemented new services and invested in new equipment to better serve the community For example JMMC brought to the area a stateoftheart nuclear gamma camera and upgraded its two computed tomography scanners During the reorganization a Patient Care Ombudsman PCO monitored the quality of care and JMH and EHCC The PCO continuously reported the organization functioned without any negative impact on patient care during the reorganization In addition the PCO said the hospitals focus on quality is better than many other hospitals in Connecticut

In September 2010 JMMC emerged from Chapter 11 as an independent communitybased health care provider as it has been for nearly a century Because the organization restructured the new name quotJohnson Memorial Medical Centerquot was adopted

JMMCs organizational and governance structures were revised in January 2011 Its nine entities were consolidated into three plus the controlled but not owned Johnson Professional Associates JPA The the previous five Boards were dissolved into one Board of Directors for the parent company JMMC

Today JMMC is the nonprofit parent company of JMH which is based in Stafford Springs with outpatient departments in Enfield EHCC which offers longterm care shortterm rehabilitation and recovery and a Memory Support Unit and HampCHS a home health and hospice care agency In addition JPA a group of highly skilled physicians and midlevel providers is controlled but not owned by JMMC The hospital has partnered with local health care organizations to bring services to the community including Community CancerCare a partnership with Hartford Hospital Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital as well as Tolland Imaging Center a partnership with Windham Hospital Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital JMH also provides medical and surgical specialists to the Tolland area through session space in Tolland Medical Specialists

JMMC employs about 1000 community members and about 255 boardcertified physicians are on its medical staff many of whom are on staff at area tertiary medical centers JMMCs entities are conveniently located on or near Route 190 in Stafford Springs and Enfield