Dear Colleagues,

I’d like to start with a reminder for you to join me at my next town hall, Wednesday, June 10, at noon, either in person in Keller Auditorium or virtually via Teams. As of this writing we haven’t seen many questions submitted to our inbox, thquestion@uchc.edu. Any question is welcome and the floor is open.

Last weekend I attended my 21-year-old daughter Hannah’s graduation ceremony. The commencement speaker was Lisa T. Su, BS, MS, Ph.D., who is the Chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, a large global technology company. Dr. Su centered her speech on the positive impact of artificial intelligence. It caught my attention that the one industry she cited as a powerful example was healthcare. Dr. Su’s comments were:

The area that excites me the most is actually what we can do in medicine and healthcare. I think we’ve all experienced firsthand what it feels like when someone you love is sick. And even with incredible doctors and the best care, you realize how hard it is for any one person or any one team to bring together all of the knowledge that has been gathered to help in that critical time of need. AI can help us change that. It can help doctors and researchers bring the world’s best expertise to each patient and each loved one and deliver the care that we want for the best chance of a successful outcome. And this, I think, is the promise of AI at its best.

But we don’t need to look to another university’s commencement for an iconic leader who believes that AI will revolutionize medicine. Dr. Gerald Chan spoke at UConn Health’s 55^th commencement ceremony on May 11. Dr. Chan is a scientist, venture capitalist, and philanthropist, and co‑founder of the Morningside Group. Through the Morningside Foundation, he led a transformational $175 million gift to UMass, the largest in its history, resulting in the naming of UMass Chan Medical School. He gave a wonderful speech called “In Sickness and Health,” which he ended with:

The opportunities before you graduates are many and varied. You are living in a most exciting time. With the advent of AI, science and medicine have never had greater potential for improving human health. I would give an arm and a leg to be young again like you, starting out on a journey with so many possibilities.

The reason I mention this is to underscore why we at UConn Health are discussing with donors about helping us launch our planned Institute for AI Healthcare Innovation. This is still a work in progress but the institute’s strategic focus will include:

• Systematically assessing unmet operational and clinical needs within UConn Health
• Identifying and evaluating existing AI companies whose solutions address those needs
• Facilitating structured pilots and integrations of selected companies within UConn Health

I will keep you updated as our donor discussions continue.

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One of the things that has become a regular occurrence is our trend of being recognized by outside entities for our quality and patient safety. I’m happy to say that trend continues yet again, this time with Newsweek’s “America’s Best Specialized Hospitals” for pulmonary care.

We often talk about how outstanding our clinical care is, but it’s especially validating when objective third-party measures affirm that belief. Congratulations to all who have a hand in elevating and maintaining our quality and warranting of this type of recognition. Please read more about this on UConn Today.

Speaking of awards, this week we accepted the Distinguished Business of the Year award from the Central Connecticut Chambers of Commerce. In accepting the award at the group’s 136^th annual dinner in Bristol Wednesday night, Caryl Ryan, our chief nursing officer and JDH COO, and Anne Horbatuck, our VP for ambulatory services and UMG COO, thanked the chamber members for the trust and support they give us every time they choose UConn health for their care, or for the care of family or employees.

This is the chamber’s highest honor, and it illustrates that our success is intertwined with the success of the hundreds of small businesses that make up the chamber and the work they do across our communities. We had more than 30 members of senior leadership, physician leadership, dental school leadership and nursing leadership to represent us in accepting this honor.

Yet another honor is coming soon. Next Thursday, Dr. Christopher Conner, neurosurgeon in our Brain and Spine Institute, will accept a 2026 Connecticut Hospital Association Healthcare Hero award. I’m looking forward to attending the ceremony and will have more to say on this next week, but this week I wanted to share this photo of Dr. Ketan Bulsara (left), chair of our Department of Neurosurgery, and Dr. Scott Allen (right), our chief medical officer, meeting Dr. Conner in our hospital lobby this week to share the news with him. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Conner for this well-deserved honor.

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Our finance people do a great deal of work behind the scenes to ensure we are properly collecting from our payors for our outstanding clinical services. They are some of the best in their fields, and a testament to that is the fact that two of them are now in leadership roles at the Connecticut chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association. Kyle Dunleavy (right), director of single billing, began a one-year term as president June 1, and Chad Bianchi (left), VP of finance and logistics, just began as president-elect, and will succeed Kyle as president next year.

This is yet another example of their expertise not only in their jobs, but in their disciplines. Many health systems face similar challenges with revenues and costs, and through this association we can benefit from the collective knowledge industry-wide. Our involvement in HFMA goes back more than 20 years, and our membership enables professional development for our employees by way of access to certification courses to enhance professional development in finance, revenue cycle, accounting, and business intelligence.

Please read more about this on UConn Today, and join me in congratulating Kyle and Chad on their important roles, which, I should mention, go above and beyond what they’re already doing for us.

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I have a short patient letter I’d like to share this week (edited for privacy):

I was in PACU [recently]. Meagan Zolla was my nurse.

I want her to know that she did an outstanding job. She anticipated my every need and want. She was understanding and empathetic. She helped me get dressed, even putting on my compression socks, which are difficult for me to put on! Any complaint I had, she was ready to address.

She reviewed the discharge instructions with me until she was sure I understood them.

Awesome job Meagan! Thank you!

What a lovely tribute to Meagan’s outstanding care. To her it may be just another day on the job, but to this patient it clearly made a lasting impression. Thank you, Meagan!

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And to end on another positive note, this week our Project SEARCH program held its 11^th bridge ceremony. For those who don’t know, Project SEARCH is a 10-month internship experience to prepare adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities for meaningful, independent employment. We were the first Project SEARCH employer in Connecticut in 2015, and today there are 17 throughout our state. This year we had six interns complete the program, and the bridge ceremony is their graduation ceremony.

I am extraordinarily proud, not only of these hardworking young adults who’ve shown up every day since last August to work here and to learn important job skills, but also of us as an institution for being a leader in this program for the last 11 years. I’d like to thank our Human Resources team for partnering with Favarh to make this possible, as well as the departments who have hosted and mentored interns, including dental finance, housekeeping, linen, food and nutrition, central receiving, and the mailroom, just to name some.

And please join me in congratulating this year’s Project SEARCH graduates: Stacey, Olivia, Farren, Dante, Aidan, and Cody! Read more about them and this wonderful program on UConn Today.

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

I have a question regarding the cafeteria setup. After events, tables and chairs in the rear of the cafeteria are often rearranged but not returned to their original positions. At times, chairs remain in alternate layouts, such as semi-circles, for extended periods. Recently, I observed an elderly individual nearly lose their balance while attempting to move a chair to sit down. This raised some safety concerns. Is there a process or guidance in place to ensure furniture is returned to its standard arrangement after events, so patients and visitors do not need to move it themselves?

Thank you for your question, which I’ve shared with several leaders. Formal events that are arranged through our Department of Administrative Support Services would include setup and breakdown of tables and chairs by our facilities staff. However, especially in high-traffic public areas like the cafeteria, it’s not unusual for “unofficial” or informal events, where people rearrange some tables and chairs on their own, to take place. In those situations, the space is not always restored to how it was, and our facilities staff will take care of it once they become aware of it, which isn’t always right away.

Your concern about patient and visitor safety is valid, and is one reason we all should utilize our room reservation system. When an informal or last-minute gathering comes to be, when finished we should take reasonable steps to restore the space to how it was, to avoid a situation like described in the question.

Thank you for raising this.

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

Hub Highlights

Read about a CT AHEC workshop on food as medicine.

It’s another national recognition for our hospital, named among Newsweek’s “America’s Best Hospital for Pulmonary Care.”

Two of our finance experts have leadership roles at the Connecticut chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Plus, don’t forget Dr. Andy’s town hall next Wednesday!