{"id":246067,"date":"2026-05-13T16:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=246067"},"modified":"2026-05-15T08:18:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:18:02","slug":"uconn-john-dempsey-hospitals-university-tower-turns-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/05\/uconn-john-dempsey-hospitals-university-tower-turns-10\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn John Dempsey Hospital\u2019s University Tower Turns 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today marks 10 years since the day the first patient arrived at the just-opened emergency department of the new UConn John Dempsey Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>That was <a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/05\/hospital-patients-move-new-tower\/\">the morning of Friday, May 13, 2016<\/a>, 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\u2019s patient care mission.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cjWa-arvsrk?si=U49cdQnH-mqar4Oc&amp;rel=0\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese 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,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uconnhealth.org\/about-us\/leadership\">Dr. Andrew Agwunobi<\/a>, UConn Health CEO and executive vice president for health affairs. \u201cJohn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_112679\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-112679\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PatientTowers_5-11-16_JGelineau124.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-112679 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PatientTowers_5-11-16_JGelineau124-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"The original patient tower, left, and the new tower that together make up UConn John Dempsey Hospital. (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Photo)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PatientTowers_5-11-16_JGelineau124-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PatientTowers_5-11-16_JGelineau124-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PatientTowers_5-11-16_JGelineau124-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PatientTowers_5-11-16_JGelineau124-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PatientTowers_5-11-16_JGelineau124-150x100.jpg 150w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-112679\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original patient tower, left, and the new tower that together make up UConn John Dempsey Hospital, May 12, 2016 (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Comparing fiscal 2016 to the projections for fiscal 2026, which ends June 30, operating room cases are up 49%, inpatient discharges are up 53.9%,\u00a0 emergency department visits are up 86%, and UConn Health\u2019s overall net patient revenue is up 142%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have experienced such incredible growth over the past 10 years,\u201d says Caryl Ryan, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_112802\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-112802\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Patient-Move-for-UConn-Today-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-112802 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Patient-Move-for-UConn-Today-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"nursing staff moving a patient bed down a hospital hall\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Patient-Move-for-UConn-Today-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Patient-Move-for-UConn-Today-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Patient-Move-for-UConn-Today-1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Patient-Move-for-UConn-Today-1-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Patient-Move-for-UConn-Today-1-150x100.jpg 150w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/200;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-112802\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">UConn John Dempsey Hospital staff move a patient into the new University Tower May 13, 2016. (Janine Gelineau\/ UConn Health photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d says Dr. Scott Allen, chief medical officer.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe remain grateful to the state for its leadership and financial support in making the construction of the University Tower possible,\u201d Agwunobi says. \u201cYears 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Decade of \u2018remarkable growth\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":246059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,2231,2388,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-246067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-health-well-being","category-healthcare-workforce","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 02:03:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246067"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246198,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246067\/revisions\/246198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/246059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246067"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=246067"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=246067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}