Multiple members of Saint Francis Hospital's locally-based board have resigned, Trinity Health of New England confirmed, following a series of serious patient safety and quality findings at the Hartford, Connecticut hospital, including an incident in 2026 that left a patient dead.
Multiple Saint Francis Hospital board members resign amid patient safety concerns
Multiple members of Saint Francis Hospital's locally-based board have resigned, Trinity Health of New England confirmed, following a series of serious patient safety and quality findings at the Hartford, Connecticut hospital, including an incident in 2026 that left a patient dead.
Trinity Health of New England spokesperson Stephanie Valickis identified the resignations as coming from the hospital's 'community board,' which she described as serving 'in an advisory capacity' separate from Trinity Health of New England's governing board, which oversees all five hospitals in the system. John Kinney, who served as chair of the community board and also held a seat on Trinity Health of New England's governing board, resigned from both positions.
State Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, said he spoke with several of the departing board members and was told that an 'overwhelming majority' of the board's 11 members resigned during a meeting on Tuesday. Anwar said his understanding is that they resigned over concerns that parent company Trinity Health is not prepared to invest the resources needed to make necessary improvements at Saint Francis.
Anwar also questioned the hospital's use of the term 'community board,' saying he was not aware of the hospital using that term previously. A March 2025 hospital announcement referred to the group as its 'Board of Directors.' A page on the health system's website titled 'Board of Directors' that on Wednesday morning listed locally-based directors and trustees for each individual hospital in the system was later updated to remove those individual hospital lists. Valickis did not respond to a question about why the page was changed.
Since January 2023, Saint Francis has received nine findings of 'immediate jeopardy' from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — the most serious quality and safety citation CMS can issue — a designation applied when a provider 'has placed the health and safety of recipients in its care at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment, or death.' Three of those citations were issued in 2026 alone.
The hospital entered into a consent order with the Connecticut Department of Public Health in September 2024, requiring an independent consultant to assess its progress on staffing and safety. That order remained in effect as of last month. In July, the state health department entered into a second consent order with Saint Francis, stating it 'remains concerned that prior remediation efforts have not resulted in sustained compliance across all cited areas.'
In April, Trinity Health of New England replaced its president and CEO, installing Steven Hanks, who also leads Trinity Health New York, in the role. Robert Roose was named interim president of Saint Francis Hospital and now serves as president of acute care for the system. Both replaced their predecessors — Montez Carter and Valerie Powell-Stafford, respectively. Hanks and Roose are both physicians and longtime Trinity Health employees. The two signed a full-page advertisement in the Hartford Courant in July acknowledging Saint Francis's lagging performance and pledging to address safety and quality problems. Valickis said more than $20 million has been spent in the past three months alone on capital investments in the hospital's technology and equipment, and Roose said last month that Saint Francis could expect 'tens of millions of dollars every year over the course of the next several years' from Trinity Health.
Trinity Health of New England is owned by Trinity Health, a Michigan-based health system it describes as a '$25 billion' organization and 'one of the largest not-for-profit, faith-based healthcare systems in the nation,' operating in 23 states with more than 90 hospitals. Trinity Health of New England has three short-term acute care hospitals in Connecticut.
- The source does not state the exact number of board members who resigned, as Valickis did not respond to that follow-up question.
- The source does not identify the specific incident in 2026 that resulted in a patient death.
- The source does not state the reasons for the resignations as confirmed by Trinity Health of New England; Anwar's account of the reasons is attributed to conversations with board members and is not corroborated by the hospital or Trinity Health.
- The source does not establish what role, if any, the resigned board members played beyond the advisory function described by Valickis.
- The source does not state the total amount of capital investment committed by Trinity Health over the multi-year period Roose referenced, only that he said 'tens of millions of dollars every year over the course of the next several years.'
- The source does not explain why the Trinity Health of New England website was updated to remove individual hospital board listings.
Read the original at CT Mirror