Nuvance Health appoints Christina McCulloch as President of Sharon Hospital
Nuvance Health has appointed Christina McCulloch, MBA, BSN, RN, as President of Sharon Hospital. McCulloch has worked at Sharon Hospital for more than eight years, most recently serving as Chief Nursing Officer since 2018, and will begin her new role in the coming weeks. McCulloch will work closely with current President Dr. Mark Hirko, MD, FACS, who will remain part of the leadership team in an advisory role as he transitions his focus and expertise to serve as the full-time President of Putnam Hospital.
McCulloch has been a clinician for nearly 20 years and a leadership role at Sharon Hospital since 2014, serving as Director of Nursing, Director of Quality and Performance Improvement, and Chief Quality Officer. She previously worked at St. Mary’s Hospital and Griffin Hospital, where she began her career at the bedside as a staff nurse. She has a Master of Business Administration degree in Healthcare Management from Quinnipiac University, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Western Connecticut State University, and an Associate Degree in Nursing from St. Vincent’s College.
Connecticut receives national recognition for streamlining efforts & technology improvements
The State of Connecticut recently received national recognition for its use of technology to streamline and improve state regulatory practices and provide better service to Connecticut residents.
Connecticut was recognized as a 2022 Tyler Public Sector Excellence award winner for combining Tyler’s state regulatory solution, CAVU eLicense, with state regulatory best practices to improve efficiency, citizen satisfaction, and return on investment.
Connecticut regulators also spearheaded the creation of a national user’s group to share ideas, best practices, and solutions to issues with regulators in other states.
DAS is the state agency that includes the Bureau of Information Technology (BITS), the state’s centralized information technology organization that was involved in this project.
Regulators across several state agencies utilize Tyler’s technology for licensing, enforcement, disciplinary actions, and online services for regulated industries. Connecticut has been a leader in implementing one system and standardized processes across its agencies.
Since 2016, Connecticut has expanded its use of eLicense from four agencies to 12, and increased the number of self-service options for licensees. Now, 41 divisions and regulatory boards across the state utilize the same technology, breaking down agency silos, ensuring a consistent experience for consumers, licensees, and state employees, and aligning workflows with the legislative requirements of each regulated industry.
Connecticut now provides streamlined automated processes and online self-service for regulators and licensees across more than 815 credentials. Renewals, payments, and account updates are fast, easy and, in most cases, immediate. The technology is also used for Connecticut Department of Banking consumer complaints and the Department of Consumer Protection’s consumer complaint center, allowing the agencies to quickly respond to and resolve consumer complaints, as well as recognize and track complaint trends in the state.
Tyler’s Excellence Award submissions were evaluated by a panel of Tyler leadership and were judged on the following criteria:
- Organizational efficiency and productivity
- Organizational responsiveness to employees, vendors, or citizens
- Business value
- Innovation in using Tyler applications or services in unique ways
- Relevance to other organizations using Tyler solutions
- COVID-19 response in handling transitions, changes, and/or other effects from the pandemic
Tyler Excellence Award winners were honored during Tyler Connect in Indianapolis, Indiana, where they were recognized in front of more than 4,100 of their public sector peers.
Office of Health Strategy Executive Director Victoria Veltri leaving state service
The Connecticut Office of Health Strategy announced this week that Executive Director Victoria Veltri will be stepping down from her role in state government at the end of this month to pursue a new professional opportunity. Veltri has accepted a position as executive director of the Malta House of Care, a private, nonprofit medical clinic that provides high-quality, free primary healthcare to uninsured adults in Greater Hartford.
On a personal note, I have had the privilege of working with Veltri on a number of issues, including issues relating to Sharon Hospital, particularly various proposals its parent companies (formerly HealthQuest, now Nuvance Health) have submitted to her office. She has impressed me with her intelligence, knowledge, responsiveness and overall commitment to high quality, accessible, affordable health care for everyone. It has been a pleasure to work with her and I will miss working with her.
Veltri has served as the head of the Office of Health Strategy since its creation in February 2018 and was reappointed to the role in January 2019 when Governor Lamont took office. The Office of Health Strategy is responsible for implementing data-driven strategies that promote equal access to healthcare, improve the value of healthcare, contain costs, and ensure better healthcare systems for Connecticut residents. It was established as part of a consolidation effort to bring several existing resources from various state agencies into one centralized location so that these efforts could function more cohesively and efficiently.
Under her leadership, the office:
- Launched the first successful statewide health information exchange;
- Modified the certificate of need process with a focus on equity, access, affordability, and community benefits;
- Launched a community health worker advisory board;
- Drove investments into community-led prevention activities;
- Ensured more comprehensive community benefits reporting and actions;
- Partnered with the Office of the State Comptroller and others to launch the Connecticut Healthcare Affordability Index;
- Developed the bipartisan Covered Connecticut program; and
- Recently became the first state in the country to codify a bipartisan executive order establishing Connecticut’s first cost growth benchmarks, primary care targets, and quality benchmarks.
Prior to her current role, Veltri served as chief health policy advisor for former Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman. She also served as Connecticut’s healthcare advocate in the Office of the Healthcare Advocate.
Veltri’s final day with the state will be on July 1. Governor Lamont is launching a search for a successor to fill the position
U.S. Census Bureau approves proposal for Connecticut’s planning regions to become county equivalents
The United States Census Bureau has approved a request from the State of Connecticut to adopt the state’s nine planning regions as county-equivalent geographic units to collect, tabulate, and disseminate census data.
Each planning region is represented by a council of government (COG), comprising the mayors and first selectmen of the member municipalities, which meet regularly to plan, coordinate, and act on matters of mutual interest. The Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM) requested this change on behalf of the COGs in 2017.
Here in the Northwest Corner, the Northwest Hills Council of Governments (NHCOG) includes 21 towns in the region, including all of the 64th District.
The Census Bureau will implement this change internally in 2022, with public data and geospatial products reflecting the change beginning near the end of the year. By 2024, all Census Bureau operations and publications, both internal and external, will use the nine new planning region boundaries, names, and codes, except for 2020 decennial census data publications and other datasets referencing the eight legacy counties as published before June 1, 2022.
Connecticut’s nine planning regions include:
- Capitol
- Greater Bridgeport
- Lower Connecticut River Valley
- Naugatuck Valley
- Northeastern Connecticut
- Northwest Hills
- South Central Connecticut
- Southeastern Connecticut
- Western Connecticut
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