Dear Colleagues,

This week is particularly special for two reasons. First is that it is “Healthcare Week,” which runs from May 10-16. This is a time where we at UConn Health thank and recognize all healthcare workers — clinical and nonclinical. The second reason is that this week is the 10th anniversary of the opening of the University Tower, our teaching hospital, which opened on May 13, 2016. It’s amazing how time flies! Watch this brief video that shows how much the hospital has accomplished since its opening:

These last 10 years tell a story of remarkable growth, not only in patient volumes, but also in quality, patient safety, and our reputation as a premiere healthcare provider for the region. Those who go back far enough know, UConn Health had a vision for what this wonderful academic medical center could become. Thankfully the state had faith in us and made a bold investment then, and has done so again today, as UConn John Dempsey Hospital has also emerged as a tertiary hospital for the UConn Health Community Network of hospitals that will greatly expand access to high-quality, high-value care well beyond our footprint here in Farmington.

I invite you to read more about this milestone on UConn Today.

Right in the middle of Healthcare Week was “Proud to Be UConn Health” Day, which included rounding by my leadership team and me. Leaders visited several departments and had a chance to spend a few minutes with our busy employees to offer them a snack and a drink and thank them for their work. I, along with CNO and hospital COO Caryl Ryan and CFO Jeff Geoghegan, had the privilege of bringing a cart of snacks to the staff at the Sterile Processing Department, also known as Central Sterile. My special thanks to Ellen Benson, who oversees this area, as well as Derrick Weir (distribution aide), Erin Nosal (instrument room specialist), Meenawatty Torres (supervisor), Daryl Walker (travel tech), Lorenzo Matos (instrument room specialist), Grazyna Kus (housekeeping), and the whole Central Sterile team.

I was also happy that the Central Sterile team now has a newly renovated workspace and new equipment.

We also took our cart to visit Nurse Staffing/Payroll on UT2 and met with the amazing staff members, including Rose Jawor (bed flow) and Patrycja Jacewicz and Rebecca Beaudoin (nursing supervisors).

As part of Proud to Be UConn Health Day, our Office of Professional Well-Being and Engagement created an interactive forum where you can share a photo and a message to show what you’re grateful for and what makes you proud. Our Wall of Gratitude, which is up year-round, is also active. I invite you to visit both, see the inspiring contributions, and add your own.

I’d like to thank Alexis Crean and her team in our Office of Professional Well-Being and Engagement for organizing Proud to Be UConn Health Day and making it happen, as well as those who partnered with them to make is a success, including Alex Schwarz and the Courier Services team; George Moses, Peter Irrek, Vinny Palmeri, and Mike Vinci from Custodial Services; Amy Chmielewski, Taylor Parker, Sandra Paprzyca, and Izabela Maternowski from UMG; and our marketing and communications teams.

Also Wednesday I had the opportunity to thank the Pharmacy team for their impressive work, along with WFSB, who brought donuts and coffee to celebrate Healthcare Week. My sincere thanks to AVP and Chief Pharmacy Officer Kevin Chamberlain and his whole pharmacy team for all they do to help patients and our team.

You can find all the segments on UConn Today and on the Hub.

The recurring theme for me on these visits is that we have world-class employees who work behind the scenes to make UConn Health everything it has come to represent for the people of Connecticut, whether that’s in education, research or patient care. Thank you.

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Staying on the theme of UConn Health accomplishments, this week I presented some at our Clinical Affairs Subcommittee meeting:

The three most recent that I mentioned in my presentation are the first three on the top row, namely (1) the recent 11th consecutive Leapfrog Hospital Safety A rating, (2) the only hospital in Connecticut to receive Healthgrades’ Outstanding Patient Experience Excellence award (more on this later), and (3) Best Maternity Hospital from Newsweek. These and the other awards listed are a direct result of your work.

Additionally, we are celebrating 60 UConn Health physicians who were recognized on the 2026 “Top Doctors” list published in the May edition of Connecticut Magazine in partnership with Castle Connolly. This recognition underscores the extraordinary talent, commitment, and compassion our physicians demonstrate each day. Together, they deliver outstanding patient care, drive innovation in research, and educate the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Thank you!

I also updated the Clinical Affairs Subcommittee on our hospital operations. I won’t go into all the details here but one example is our hospital discharges:

This graph shows that March year-to-date the hospital discharges are 3.3% greater than budget and 9.4% greater than last year.

Another operational area I highlighted is the main OR (operating rooms):

This graph shows that March YTD surgeries are about on budget but 6% higher than last year.

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Switching gears, this week I also attended a press conference at Storrs where the governor and legislators announced $35 million in funding to help UConn/UConn Health weather the federal research funding cuts. In addition of course to thanking Governor Lamont and the legislature, I want to thank Dr. Margaret Callahan, chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, and Dr. Neena Qasba, OB-GYN Division director of family planning, for speaking so eloquently and passionately at the event about the importance of research.

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Yet another reason to celebrate this week, we graduated our 55^th medical, dental, and graduate school classes. Congratulations to the 105 new physicians, 52 new dentists, and 106 scientists and public health experts who are now poised to join the workforce, either immediately or after additional training. As you likely know, UConn Health is Connecticut’s No. 1 producer of physicians, dentists, and scientists. Our academic mission is instrumental in meeting the health care demands of our state and beyond, and is a particular point of pride for us.

I invite you to read more about Monday’s commencement and this year’s graduating classes on UConn Today.

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I mentioned earlier, we just announced this week that UConn John Dempsey Hospital has won the Healthgrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award for the fourth year in a row. This distinction puts us among the top 15% of hospitals nationwide for patient experience based on objective patient survey data, and ours is the only hospital in Connecticut so honored this year. It’s an amazing honor and a testament to the kindness, competence, passion, and patient focus of our employees. As this award demonstrates, our employees’ commitment to treating every patient as they would want to be treated sets UConn Health apart.

Which brings me to a patient letter that illustrates those values, calling out two of our nurses, Dathan MacDonald and Mykela Grabacik, to praise them (edited for length and privacy):

I feel that when someone wants to recognize extraordinary service by an employee, starting at the top is the right thing to do.

I have intense anxiety around medical appointments, procedures, interactions and the lack of control that often accompanies those visits. It’s something I work on consistently, but often causes the physicians and nurses extra headache, work and communication when dealing with me…

My pre-op nurse was Dathan. He was immediately warm, professional and concerned. He gave me step by step, understandable and detailed instructions and information from the very beginning all the way until I was wheeled out to the OR. I didn’t even necessarily have to tell him that I needed that level of care and concern to feel comfortable and confident in what was happening – he just automatically provided it. What a gift to have and to share with patients. He made what would have otherwise been an incredibly stressful time, feel calm and relaxed for me. I absolutely can’t thank him enough for that and want very much for UConn to understand and recognize the value of his service to your organization and to your patients.

In addition, I would like to also recognize another exemplary nurse who has been absolutely integral to my care. When discharged from the hospital, I was feeling very unwell, depressed and hopeless for a variety of reasons… What is important, is that the person who came to my “rescue” was nurse Mykela Garbacik in Urogynecology. She reacted to a question that I sent on MyChart with compassion, empathy and urged me to come in to see her to receive instruction and support. And since that time, she has repeatedly been the most valuable medical professional in my recovery – always with an unbelievable amount of patience, guidance and gentle persuasion to have hope and stay positive (in addition to providing the medical/professional care needed)… She is an incredible, empathetic and knowledgeable nurse who explained everything to me in detail and with compassion. I absolutely don’t know what I would have done without her.

Both of these individuals could have just done their jobs and moved on to the next patient with a job well done, but instead showed extra care, kindness and attention to a patient who desperately needed it in the moment. I doubt that I have even expressed adequately how much that meant to me. I hope that their hard work and dedication is recognized and appreciated within your organization. I will forever be grateful to them both and hold UConn in a higher regard as a result of my interactions with them.

How gratifying it is to read letters like this — the care this patient experienced was so compassionate that it compelled her to take the time to write a lengthy account of how it made a difference for her.

All this brings us back to these week’s theme of celebrating. Patient letters like this surely make us proud, as do the 263 graduates from our schools, and the faculty and staff who mentored and supported them, and of course all our providers and clinical and support staff who make our outstanding patient care possible every day, as well as our brilliant researchers on the forefront of the future of medicine and the students, postdocs, and staff supporting them.

It’s why I say this every week:

Thank you for all you do.

Andrew C. Agwunobi, MD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
EVP for Health Affairs
UConn Health

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Dear Dr. Andy

Can we take away the feature of patient self check in? We have patients arrive themselves and not be in the office. Or they will come in and just sit down when we have paperwork and other things that we need to collect from them.

Thank you for the question, which I’ve shared with leaders in our outpatient practices and IT. There are benefits to allowing patients to perform self-arrival, though we recognize there are times when patients may do it before they are physically present.

The Epic team has been looking at future functionality that will help eliminate this from occurring, and has implemented the following changes:

1. We have shortened the window for self-check-in, so it’s now allowed only within 10 minutes before the appointment time.
2. We have updated the self-arrival text message to offer clearer instructions. it now reads, “Reply 1 only if you’re at the reception area for your visit.”

As for clinics that find that information is missing, such as forms or questionnaires that should be part of the self-check-in, they should report what is needed to IT for troubleshooting.

I appreciate the feedback, which in this case led to a change to try to improve the check-in process while maintaining efficiency and patient convenience.

There is a single “O” in the courtyard. It’s been there for at least as long as I have and is covered in moss/mold. Are there plans to clean it up and possibly spell out UConn Health or maybe remove it and put some other installation there? It does detract from the courtyard that is otherwise beautifully landscaped.

Good question – I’ve shared it with our buildings and grounds leader and our art curator. We haven’t been able to locate historic records related to the origin of the “O.” We believe it goes back to the 70s and was not part of a larger plan to spell out “UConn” in the courtyard.

I appreciate your concern about the aesthetics of our campus, and I thank you for raising this, which, I’m happy to say, resulted in our grounds crew recently power washing the sculpture.

Have something you want to ask Dr. Andy? Submit your question on The Hub.

Hub Highlights

It’s 10 years now since we opened the University Tower!

Connecticut Magazine is out with its 2026 Top Docs — who made this year’s list?

Our noninvasive vascular lab earns accreditation for extracranial cerebrovascular testing.

Plus, a patient shares her experience with the DigniCap scalp cooling system.