Home Care In Prospect, CT

Homeowners in the northwestern section of Somers are planning a large turnout at a hearing Tuesday night on whether an Ellington dairy should be allowed to dump large quantities of cow manure into a holding area near their houses.

Oakridge Dairy contends it is putting in an irrigation pond, but neighbors say it amounts to a manure lagoon — and will be every bit as unappealing as that name sounds.

Ellington-based Oakridge, which state agriculture officials describe as Connecticut’s largest dairy, wants to truck cow waste to a field along Watchaug Road in Somers where it’s proposing to dig a 2.9-acre holding pit.

Watchaug Road homeowner Kevin Phillips this weekend was putting out lawn signs showing opposition and advising neighbors that a hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at town hall. He said people in the area don’t want the smell or risk of water pollution from a massive pit of animal waste.

The company argues that the pit would qualify as a farm irrigation pond under zoning and agricultural regulations, which give wide latitude to farming operations. Somers still has active farms, and its zoning code lists numerous agricultural activities as ZPNR: Zoning permit not required.

In October, Oakridge proposed a 5-acre holding pit on the Watchaug Road property for manure from its Ellington dairy. It was required to seek a sepcial use zoning permit, which was denied because town officials concluded it would be too close to the high-water table. At the time, there was significant opposition to the request.

“The proximity of such a development to residential areas would lower home values, diminishing the investments homeowners have made and affecting the town’s economic stability through decreased property taxes,” Scott Robert wrote on Facebook at the time.

This winter, the company’s engineer, J.R. Russo & Associates of East Windsor, notified the town that Oakridge wants to put an irrigation pond at the same site. It would be more than 2 acres smaller and also shallower, and would be farther from the high water table, according to Oakridge.

“It is Oakridge Dairy’s position that construction of the irrigation pond is part of the farm’s normal agricultural operations,” Russo said in a letter. “Thus, the proposed activity does not require zoning approval.”

Jennifer Roy, the zoning enforcement officer, consulted with the town attorney and concluded that Oakridge could build without going through the permitting process. Owen Jarmoc, who owns farmland and an airstrip alongside the site of the proposed pit, filed an appeal, which will be the subject of the zoning board of appeals’ hearing on Tuesday night.

A phone message Monday for Oakridge owner Seth Bahler was not returned.

Neighbors say they’re concerned about quality-of-life issues like odors, increased truck traffic and the possibility of insect swarms. But they also want studies of the potential impact on groundwater if the animal waste leaches through clay-lined pit.

Russo said there will be a 2-foot clay liner designed to U.S. Department of Agriculture standards.

If the zoning appeals board were to uphold Roy’s decision, Oakridge would be able to go ahead with its plan. If the board sustains Jarmoc’s appeal, the company would be required to apply for a zoning permit.

Prospect Medical Holdings ? the bankrupt owner of Waterbury, Rockville General and Manchester Memorial hospitals ? announced Monday it would close down two Pennsylvania hospitals after failing to find buyers or operating cash amid its financial struggles.

“Today, Prospect Medical Holdings made the extremely difficult decision to begin winding down operations across our Crozer Health facilities,” the company said in a statement. “At this time, the focus at Crozer Health remains on seamlessly transitioning patients to other health facilities so that they can continue to receive the critical, uninterrupted care they require, and to support Crozer Health team members as they seek to identify other employment opportunities.”

Starting on Wednesday, ambulances will be diverted from the two hospitals ? Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Chester and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park. New patients will no longer be admitted to the hospitals and resident patients will start being transferred to other facilities, according to a closure plan filed with the court.

“Along with the governor’s office and other state and local leaders, we worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome,” the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the damage inflicted by Leonard Green & Partners — the private equity owners of Prospect — who prioritized their own wealth over the wellbeing of a community, was too much to overcome.”

Connecticut lawmakers are currently considering proposed new laws to limit the role of private equity in the state’s health-care marketplace, citing the impact of Prospect’s actions nationwide. Yale New Haven Health announced it had ended its bid to buy the Connecticut hospitals earlier this year.

Prospect first filed to close the Pennsylvania hospitals on March 6, citing ongoing losses and lack of a buyer to take over in bankruptcy. In the weeks since, the company has worked with health systems, state and county officials and a local foundation to keep the hospitals open.

After several infusions of cash, Prospect told bankruptcy court Judge Stacey Jernigan on April 10 that it needed another $9 million to keep the hospitals running until the end of the month, but had only secured $6 million.

The hospitals’ final act came on Thursday, when the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office told Prospect that “no potential buyer was willing to take over operations of the Pennsylvania hospitals and that there was no hope for a long-term solution,” Monday’s court filing stated.

As of Jan. 31, Crozer-Chester Medical Center employed 1,856 people and had lost $46.9 million in its fiscal year to date. Taylor Hospital employed 347 and had lost $4.3 million in the same period, according to the March closure filing.

“We will continue to work through the bankruptcy process to pursue the commonwealth’s financial claims to the greatest extent possible in order to hold Prospect accountable for actions that caused this closure,” the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said.

A series of unannounced inspections in 2024 by state health inspectors reveal a nurse staffing crisis at Waterbury Hospital. The findings are the latest in a string of problems at hospitals owned by private-equity funded Prospect Medical Holdings.

Currently, Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital all face an uncertain future following the apparent collapse of a purchase deal with Yale New Haven Health.

According to inspection reports obtained by Connecticut Public, nurses at the intensive care unit at Waterbury Hospital were “concerned that the ICU is often inappropriately staffed which causes unsafe conditions, there are frequently unsafe staff assignments.”

The report says nurses at the hospital feel overwhelmed and that “they are not providing quality patient care,” the 2024 records showed.

“The RNs indicated that the ICU is staffed unsafely on most days, and not consistent with the hospital Staffing Plan, and staff is exhausted which leads them to call out for scheduled shifts,” the report states.

Records show the nurse absenteeism rate in the ICU was 31%, and to fill the gap, administrative staff stepped in with patient care.

Edmond Gadomski, the hospital’s nurses’ union representative, said nurses are working short-staffed and taking on bigger assignments than they should.

“So yes, they are burned out, [it] does increase the absenteeism in the hospital,” Gadomski said. “They’re not superheroes, there’s only so much that they can do. You’re taking care of 5,6,7 patients when you should be at a 1 to 4 cap.”

In a statement, Waterbury Hospital said it has been in compliance “with at least 80% of the nursing staffing assignments outlined in the hospital’s staffing plan, which is within DPH’s requirements,” and it is actively recruiting nurses, and adding traveler nurses to its rosters to provide additional help.

But Gadomski said the shortage is ongoing, despite records filed by the hospital with the DPH to the contrary.

“I have some departments at 50% vacancy rate, 33-to-40% vacancy rates, there's no way that they could be compliant,” he said. “And I have actually filed a violation or complaint myself in the DPH, so that they will investigate that fact.”

DPH declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

In addition, the hospital is looking into the use of an acuity tool through the electronic health records system to better align staffing with patient needs, the records showed.

A registered ICU nurse interviewed by the DPH approximately five hours into the shift said he was unable to titrate medications on patients for the shift due to the workload and acuity of the patients.

And a DPH inspection of the gastroenterology unit identified that the assistant director of gastroenterology and medical therapies was not a registered nurse, as required, and was not able to assist with care when the registered nurses needed help.

Prospect filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings Jan. 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas. Prospect does not own hospitals in Texas, but may have chosen that state as some debtors find Texas preferable in bankruptcy court, Chris Mattei, a former assistant U.S. attorney, told Connecticut Public.