CT Combats Cancer Rates with Education

Connecticut has the second highest rate of female breast cancer and 14th highest rate of uterine cancer in the nation, and the state's death rates for ovarian and uterine cancers exceed those of most other states, according to the state Department of Public Health.  Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Connecticut.  The department received a $26,361 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2011 to support an initiative to educate health care providers on hereditary cancers for which national recommendations for genetic counseling and testing exist.  The effort is part of the state agency's Healthy People 2020 Action Project.  

St. Francis Care Affiliates with Johnson Memorial

Saint Francis Care, Inc. and Johnson Memorial Medical Center (JMMC) have announced plans to enter into an affiliation agreement designed to maintain Johnson Memorial (based in Stafford Springs) as an independent source of high-quality healthcare and expand its clinical services in North Central Connecticut.  Saint Francis Care is an integrated healthcare delivery system (anchored by Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center) licensed for 617 beds.  A regional presence since 1897, it is a major teaching hospital and the largest Catholic hospital in New England.  Under the plan, Johnson Memorial and St. Francis will continue to be separately licensed institutions, each with separate Boards of Directors. The region's other dominant medical facility, Hartford Hospital - central to the burgeoning and recently re-branded Hartford Healthcare - is licensed for 867 beds.  The University of Connecticut Health Center's John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington has 153 beds, and is on the threshold of construction of a new facility.