Today marks 10 years since the day the first patient arrived at the just-opened emergency department of the new UConn John Dempsey Hospital.

That was the morning of Friday, May 13, 2016, as UConn Health was moving patients from the Connecticut Tower, which had housed the original hospital for more than 40 years, to the new University Tower, starting a new era in UConn Health’s patient care mission.

“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 health care provider for the region in an academic medical center setting,” says Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, UConn Health CEO and executive vice president for health affairs. “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.”

Once Bristol and Day Kimball Hospitals join, the UConn Health Community Network and UConn John Dempsey Hospital will combine for 922 beds, an increase of nearly 300% compared to the 234 beds licensed to UConn Health in 2016.

Comparing fiscal 2016 to the projections for fiscal 2026, which ends June 30, operating room cases are up 49%, emergency department visits are up 86%, and UConn Health’s overall net patient revenue is up 142%.

“We have experienced such incredible growth over the past 10 years,” says Caryl Ryan, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer. “We opened a new hospital tower, successfully transitioned to an electronic health record system, survived a pandemic and had a tremendous increase in the volume of patients in our emergency department, operating rooms and our inpatient units. Congratulations to our providers and staff on this impressive milestone.”

From May 2016 to May 2026, the UConn John Dempsey Hospital workforce grew has grown from 1,717 to 2,471, an increase of 44%.

“The addition of the University Tower not only helped transform our physical campus into a state-of-the-art patient care facility, but also helped propel UConn Health into a premier academic medical center and a destination for healthcare,” says Dr. Scott Allen, chief medical officer.

In 2011, Public Act 11-17, the Bioscience Connecticut initiative, called for $864 million in strategic investments in UConn Health to position Connecticut at the forefront of the growing bioscience industry. These investments aimed to generate long-term sustainable economic growth based on bioscience research, innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization. One of the cornerstone projects was the construction of a new patient tower for UConn Health, with 169 single-bed hospital rooms within its 11 floors and more than 380,000 square feet, plus a 40-bed emergency department.

“We remain grateful to the state for its leadership and financial support in making the construction of the University Tower possible,” Agwunobi says. “Years before we opened our new hospital, many of us had a vision for what UConn Health could become, and the state had faith in us and made a bold investment.”