A Message from Elliot Joseph

This snapshot reveals many specific achievementsfrom the year past. We have sustained national leadership in hand-hygiene compliance. Our ongoing CareConnect conversion to the Epic electronic health record has been marked by competence, confidence and cooperation. The launch at Hartford Hospital, for example, placed us among the top 5 percent of Epic organizations. We have added internationally recognized clinical leaders to our already impressive roster of healers. And we have received numerous awards and honors for the care we provide across the continuum.

But I hope you will see beyond the many significant accomplishments of a single year and view 2016 as I do — as a milestone in an eight-year journey toward true integration, care coordination and dependable, high quality.

When I arrived in 2008, I said that we all should “look in the mirror.” We used that moment of honesty and accountability to reinvent ourselves. We created a single set of values, a shared vision and mission and a common language through How Hartford HealthCare Works (H3W). The H3W platform was further enriched through Leadership Behavior training, Lean and high-reliability training. And we hard-wired it as our Operating Model — as the way we work. Over these years, we have had the privilege of adding new partners such as The Hospital of Central Connecticut and Backus, as we increased access for Connecticut’s residents. Together, we reduced our cost structure so that we can work toward greater affordability. We became more unified and formed new kinds of organizations across the continuum only possible through disciplined integration. These included our institutes, Integrated Care Partners and Community Network.

Today, our continuum is the state’s most integrated care system. We are a community of more than 18,000 devoted and dedicated individuals who are ready to serve patients and families across the state and to — in the words of our mission — improve their health and healing. Looking back, our vision was incredibly ambitious. And yet, in only eight years, we find ourselves well on our way to making our dream a reality for the people we are honored to serve. It has taken selfless hard work, many sacrifices and extraordinary collaboration.

We are not perfect and we are not done. Our vision is evolving. Today, we aim to be “most trusted for personalized coordinated care.” Over the coming years, our customers will experience our further transformation every time they need us. That exceptional and reliable customer experience will distinguish us from every other healthcare system in the region — and in the country.

I am deeply grateful for — and proud of — all of the achievements described in these pages and for the leadership the employees of Hartford HealthCare have shown in transforming healthcare over the past eight years.

Sincerely,

Elliot Joseph
Chief Executive Officer
Hartford HealthCare