Lynn Ricci prides herself on bringing a diverse background to her position as senior vice president administration at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain.
A lack of licensing reciprocity between Maryland and Connecticut kept her from her initial career of school psychologist.
Ricci was a school psychologist when she relocated to Connecticut in 1988. She had to get a new license here and in the meantime went to work at a nursing home.
“It’s been great to blend the two [backgrounds],” she said, adding she doesn’t regret abandoning her early career.
She started as a nursing home administrator for the parent of Hospital for Special Care in 2004 at Brittany Farms, and has worked for the hospital since 2007. She was promoted to senior vice president in April 2009.
As senior vice president for administration, Ricci is responsible for HSC’s strategic planning, marketing and communications and employee relations. She also oversees outpatient services including therapies and physician clinics, pharmacy, lab and radiology services, community sports programs, Aquatic and Fitness Center, and skilled nursing operations.
Ricci said she has enjoyed bringing many different professional experiences toward her role as senior vice president.
“I consider myself fortunate. I took a non-traditional path to get here,” she said.
She is in a strategy and development role for a new congestive heart failure program being implemented at the hospital. She also is positioning the hospital for external factors, like health care reform.
Dr. John Votto, president and CEO of Hospital for Special Care, nominated Ricci.
“Lynn plays a vital leadership role in strategic planning with a consistent willingness to accept new challenges and initiatives,’’ Votto said. “She has exhibited continued participation in the research and development of potential new programs, including soliciting outside funding for such projects.’’
“Lynn’s peer group holds her in high esteem and values the role that she plays within HSC and its entities,’’ he said.
Hospital for Special Care is a long-term, acute care hospital, distinguishing it from rivals such as Hartford Hospital and St. Francis Hospital, Ricci said.
“We take patients from them who need extended care,” said. The Hospital for Special Care has 100 ventilator patients out of its 228 beds. Its pediatric unit has 30 beds.
“We’re that next level of care,” Ricci said.
The hospital has the national distinction of being the only long-term acute care facility that treats both children and adults.
“It makes my job really exciting,” Ricci said.
What has also made her job exciting recently is the hospital’s new marketing campaign. It didn’t rely on paid media, instead targeting earned media or what some call free media via news articles and outreach.
The hospital, under Ricci’s lead, also redesigned its website.
“Patients don’t pick us,” she said. “They are referred to us.”
The new marketing campaign, she said, wasn’t to drive patient volume but to increase awareness of The Hospital for Special Care and its services.
Votto praised Ricci’s work on that project, too.
“She has spearheaded the brand awareness and marketing plan in an effort to communicate HSC’s mission to key stakeholders and the public as a whole,” he said. “Lynn has been relentless in significantly increasing press coverage of HSC events and initiatives and strengthening relationship with the media through individual meetings and media breakfasts.”
The hospital is also looking into an autism treatment center.
“All of our programs are based on community need,” she said, with an emphasis on not duplicating services. “Our autism initiative grew out a discussion with the New Britain superintendent of schools.”
The diversity of its mission makes marketing The Hospital for Special Care a challenge. Most people, she said, know somebody with heart disease or cancer.
“What we do is so unique,” she said of the hospital that was founded in 1941.
A family of someone struck with a traumatic brain injury or with respiratory disease may not know about the hospital, Ricci said.
“We’re a regional hospital, not just a community hospital with only New Britain residents,” she said.
Ricci is also overseeing HSC’s establishment of a 28-bed unit at the St. Francis Mt. Sinai campus in Hartford.
It’s a demonstration project looking at taking beds out of intensive care units for medically complex cases, weaning patients from ventilators and wound care. It’s being studied for being cost-effective care that doesn’t compromise quality.
“We’re a little bit like Switzerland. We don’t compete with other hospitals. We provide them with needed services.”
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, before he took office, also tapped Ricci’s expertise for a health care working group he formed to understand the issues during his transition. Ricci said she made suggestions and reviewed initiatives.
“Our autism initiative was part of that process,” she said.
Name: Lynn Ricci
Occupation: Senior vice president, Hospital for Special Care
Location of business: New Britain
You should know: She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Towson State University as well as a master’s in psychology and a sixth-year degree in psychology from Southern CT State University. She also gained a certificate in long-term care administration from the University of Connecticut.
Favorite spot for coffee: There’s a little café at the hospital that Ricci enjoys but given her druthers it’s going to be Dunkin Donuts, usually a half-flavored (like French vanilla), half-regular coffee.
– HSC CEO John Votto.
