Celebrating Greater Hartford’s Health Care Service Providers

Real heroes typically are the first tell you that that is exactly what they are not. They will tell you that they are simply doing what is asked of them. The Hartford Business Journal’s 2009 Health Care Heroes celebrated inside are no different. This year’s winners are an extraordinary mix of medical practitioners, senior care specialists, nonprofit volunteers, business and wellness advocates and bereavement counselors. They were nominated by co-workers and clients and others who know their work, and selected by independent judges, based on an established criteria. Though their roles may differ, they share a deep passion for the health services they provide and an appreciation that their efforts are making a significant difference in the lives of others. It is what motivates them. It’s what marks them as heroes.

One winner summed it up in her exuberant best by saying, “The more people let me into their lives as their doctor, the more driven I am to want to do this. I think I have the greatest job in the world.”
That is an encouraging sign, particularly as we in Connecticut and across the nation confront the greatest health care crisis of our time. The national health care reform debate now underway, when resolved, in some manner will forever alter the way we receive and pay for health care services.
It is a crisis driven by the unrelenting rising cost of providing care. According to a report by the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, health care expenditures in the U.S. surpassed $2.2 trillion in 2007. This was more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990. As a measure against the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) the figure was 16.2 percent, or about $7,421 per resident, a figure among the highest in the industrialized world. A 2008 PricewaterhouseCoopers medical cost study pointed out that 87 cents of every insurance premium dollar goes directly toward paying for medical expenses.

Against this backdrop add the declining numbers of nurses entering the profession, an increasing number of doctors retiring early from their practices, and unprecedented numbers of men and women living longer who will need services far into their elder years.

Our heroes have a true calling. Whatever their specialty, they are all a part of our nation’s health care delivery system. They put in long hours and a lot of emotional equity. They and others like them are also part of the fabric of the new system now being created that will serve us into the future. Their commitment to their professions, patients and clientele will ensure continued excellent care as reform unfolds and will help keep our nation’s health care the envy of the world.
Congratulations, heroes. We’re glad you’re there when we need you.

— Gail Lebert
Publisher, Hartford Business Journal

Photography by Steve Laschever

Stories compiled by Kevin Moore, Contributing Editor