Danbury Hospital

Danbury Hospital is a 371-bed hospital in Danbury, Connecticut.

The hospital has 3,300 employees. Frank J. Kelly is president and CEO of Danbury Hospital and Danbury Health Systems.

Notable departments and offerings

 * The Praxair Heart and Vascular center provides open heart surgery and coronary angioplasty to all the patients in need of care. Founded in 2003 the Center estabished its program with physicians from Montfiore Hospital and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.
 * The Center for Weight Loss Surgery was started in the fall of 2002.
 * The Praxair Cancer Center at Danbury Hospital is the Western Connecticut Affiliate of the Yale Cancer Center. Services range from prevention to aftercare. The Praxair Foundation, run by a company with offices in Danbury, contributed $4 million to the hospital (the largest donation the hospital ever received) to support cardiovascular care. The new center was dedicated in May 2006.
 * Danbury Hospital Pharmacy is a retail pharmacy on the first floor of the Stroock Building and is open seven days a week.
 * Sleep Disorders Center
 * Complementary Alternative Medicine includes "programs designed specifically to complement and enhance traditional medicine, rather than replace it," according to the hospital's Web site. "On-site holistic services include therapeutic touch, reiki, and instruction on relaxation techniques. Staff also provides referrals for massage therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic treatment, hypnosis, biofeedback, nutritional experts, homeopathic practitioners, and naturopathic physicians. Patients may purchase magnets, herbs and vitamins through the program."

Awards

 * Solucient LLC, a national firm providing statistical analysis of health care quality, named Danbury Hospital on its list of "100 Top Hospitals" for 2004, 2005 and 2006.


 * The American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS) named Danbury Hospital as a bariatric surgery center of excellence in 2005.


 * The Hospital received "Accreditation with Commendation" from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Satellite Locations

 * Brookfield Specimen Collection Facility in the Greenknoll Professional Building, 60 Old New Milford Road
 * Danbury Diagnostic Imaging Center opened in Danbury in 2001.
 * Danbury: Seifert & Ford Family Community Health Center, 70 Main St. in downtown Danbury
 * Danbury Specimen Collection Facility, 41 Germantown Road
 * Ridgefield Specimen Collection Facility, 10 South St.
 * Southbury: The Danbury Hospital Health Center, in the Southbury Medical Building at 22 Old Waterbury Road, offers three primary care practices: Primary Care of Southbury, Southbury Pediatrics and Southbury Geriatrics) along with specialist practices (Health Specialists of Southbury, Physical Medicine Center of Southbury, Patient Laboratory Services and Home and Hospice Care).
 * Ridgefield Diagnostic Imaging (RDI), and the Ridgefield Surgical Center LLC, 901 Ethan Allen Highway-Route 7. RDI offers a "full-range of diagnostic services" for radiologic care, according to a hospital news release. The surgical center is a joint venture between Danbury Health Systems and local surgeons and offers outpatient surgery. Both units opened in the summer of 2006 at the same address.

Affiliations
Danbury Hospital signed a preliminary affiliation agreement with Yale University School of Medicine in 1971, and in 1976 a formal five-year agreement was established. As of 2006, the affiliation agreement has been renewed four times. The Yale affiliation focuses primarily on internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pathology, genetics and oncology. The hospital also affiliated with New York Medical College in 1974 to support pediatrics, psychiatry and surgery and with the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine to support nuclear medicine.

Danbury Hospital is a member of the Council of Teaching Hospital and Health Systems (COTH) of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Of the 1,100 hospitals involved in graduate medical education in this country, the 400 COTH member institutions train about three-quarters of the residents in the United States.

History
Founded in 1885, Danbury Hospital was a small community hospital for its first 50 years. Its School of Nursing was established in 1893, and the first graduate medical education (GME) program was a one-year general internship approved in 1926.

In 1970 the hospital developed a long-range strategic plan which included a proposal to make the hospital a regional teaching hospital. A full-time faculty was formed and eventually evolved into the multi-specialty, not-for-profit practice called Danbury Office of Physician Services, PC.

Other area hospitals

 * New Milford Hospital
 * Griffin Hospital in Derby, Connecticut
 * Norwalk Hospital
 * Stamford Hospital
 * Bridgeport Hospital
 * St. Vincent's Medical Center
 * Northern Westchester Medical Center in Mount Kisco, New York