Stamford Hospital

Stamford Hospital is a private, nonprofit, community and teaching hospital in Stamford, Connecticut, with 440 affiliated doctors.

The hospital has 305 inpatient beds in medicine, surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, and medical and surgical critical care units.

As of 2005, Stamford Hospital had a total of 2,254 employees.

Tandet Center, a nursing home next door to the main building, was operated by the hospital before the nursing home recently was sold. Sixty-five workers at the Tandet Center and another 100 at the hospital are represented by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.

The hospital provides care with no deductible for workers who use the hospital's own services.

Brian Grissler is president of the hospital.

In early 2007 the hospital started a "Familial Colorectal Cancer Registry" for individuals and families with a history of colorectal or associated cancers. The private registry is the first of its kind in Connecticut. Registry members can get general screening information and updates on the latest research along with access to the registry Web site.

Awards and recognition
In 2004, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations gave the hospital won the annual Ernest A. Codman Award for creating a protocol to maintain correct blood glucose levels in critically ill patients. The new protocol cut the death rate among those patients by 29 percent and shortened time spent in the intensive care unit by 11 percent.

The American Nursing Credentialling Center in 2005 gave the hospital an award for excellence in nursing services. Stamford Hospital was one of 168 hospitals in the country to receive the award. In 2007 Ernst & Young LLP gave Grissler, the hospital president, its Entrepreneur of the Year award in the "social enterprise" category.

Cardiology services
The hospital's 32-bed Cardiology Department expanded its services in August 2005 when the hospital began offering emergency angioplasty. By early 2007, the hospital will be able to perform open heart surgery and elective angioplasty. The Richard & Hinda Rosenthal Cardiology Unit recently opened, a 24-bed unit that gives "more acute cardiac patients (care) in a warmer, more home-like environment," according to the hospital. The unit will include eight beds for patients who need additional specialized care.

Tully Health Center
The full, official name of the center at 32 Strawberry Hill Ave. is "Daniel P. & Grace I. Tully & Family Health Center" after the Tully family who made a significant donation to The Campaign for Stamford Hospital. The Center opened in the spring of 2002 at the site of the former St. Joseph's Hospital and includes diagnostic imaging services, ambulatory surgery, the Women's Breast Center, the Heart Institute, the Professional Pharmacy, the Southern Connecticut Vascular Center, the Immediate Care Center, outpatient services for mental health patients, and the Health & Fitness Institute.

Other locations

 * At 26 Palmer's Hill Road, the hospital has the Rehab Center, the Children's Health Center, adult day services and Skill Source.
 * In June 2006 the hospital announced the opening of the Darien Imaging Center to provide outpatient radiology services at 6 Thorndal Circle.

Alliances and partnerships

 * NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System
 * The hospital is a major teaching affiliate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons for teaching programs in internal medicine, family practice, psychiatry, obstetrics/gynecology and surgery.
 * The Planetree Alliance, a group of hospitals nationwide focused on patient-centered care.

History
The hospital opened with 30 beds on May 7, 1896 in a mansion on East Main Street, just west of the railroad bridge.

John Clasen, a farmer and former state legislator, town assessor and school board member, gave the initial funding for the hospital by selling some of his property. Clasen got the idea to start a hospital from his friend and attorney, Edwin L. Scofield (later the second mayor of Stamford) when Clasen consulted him about how he might contribute funds to some public cause. Clasen raised about $45,000 from the sale of the property.

Clasen's only conditions for the money were that the new institution would be named Stamford Hospital, be nonsectarian andnot discriminate in receiving patients.

Recent history
In the seven years from 1994 to 2000, the hospital lost money in six, including a $22 million loss in one year, and by about 2001 the hospital's pension plan was under funded by $40 million. Brian Grissler became the president and chief executive officer of the hospital in 2001. About 200 employees were laid off in 2002 and 2003, and the hospital was losing market share. The hospital's finances began to improve, and revenues in 2007 were $357 million. That year Ernst & Young LLP gave Grissler its Entrepreneur of the Year award in the "social enterprise" category.