St. Francis Hospital leader Valerie Powell-Stafford navigated physician transitions and state oversight in her first year while investing in robotic surgery systems including Da Vinci 5 and Mako SmartRobotics.
Valerie Powell-Stafford’s first full year leading St. Francis Hospital has been marked by high-tech gains and high-stakes challenges.
Since arriving in June 2024, she’s overseen major investments in robotic surgery and expanded clinical services — while also navigating an emergency department physician transition and a state oversight order that placed the hospital under two years of monitoring.
Powell-Stafford succeeded Thomas Burke as Hartford market president for Trinity Health Of New England, coming to the region after serving as president and CEO of HCA Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.
In addition to leading the 617-bed St. Francis Hospital, she also oversees Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital in Hartford.
When she started, Powell-Stafford identified two priorities: recruitment and technology investment. Both quickly took center stage, though the recruitment challenge unfolded in unexpected ways.
Recruitment efforts
In January, Trinity Health Of New England entered into a partnership with California-based Vituity, the nation’s largest physician-owned medical partnership group, to manage emergency medicine and hospitalist services at its Connecticut acute-care hospitals, including St. Francis.
The shift was significant: More than 100 emergency department physicians and hospitalists received 90-day notices instructing them to transition their employment to Vituity, or risk losing their jobs.
The move drew some scrutiny. State Sen. Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), co-chair of the legislature’s Public Health Committee, publicly criticized the way the transition was handled, warning of potential impacts on physician availability during an already strained period for hospital staffing. In an April statement, Anwar expressed concerns about how many doctors would choose not to join Vituity.
During a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal, Powell-Stafford said St. Francis ultimately retained about 95% of its emergency physicians and roughly 70% of its hospitalists, and that recruitment efforts continue.
She said the hospital is actively hiring for the remaining hospitalist positions and has a strong pipeline, adding that Vituity has brought in experienced physician “ambassadors” to support operations until the roles are fully staffed.
Powell-Stafford said the hospital has also recruited “some talented surgeons,” and is expanding clinical service lines — including cardiology, oncology, neurology and orthospine — based on community needs.
Technology boost
Powell-Stafford described technology investments as one of the high points of the past year, highlighted by two major equipment additions.
In December 2024, St. Francis installed the Da Vinci 5 surgical system for a wide range of procedures, including surgical oncology, thoracic, bariatric, urological, gynecological and general surgeries. In March, the hospital added the Mako SmartRobotics system for minimally invasive spinal surgery.
Both systems, she said, help reduce recovery times and the risk of complications while improving patient outcomes.
Powell-Stafford also pointed to a significant milestone reached in April, when St. Francis completed its 1,000th robotic-assisted bronchoscopy using the Ion endoluminal system.
“What’s very cool about it … is that we’re seventh in the nation in terms of the number of procedures that we’ve done,” she said.
Ion is a key component of St. Francis’ thoracic oncology program, which shortens the timeframe for lung cancer patients to receive early detection, biopsy and surgery to remove a cancerous growth — often compressing the process into just a few weeks.
Consent order
One of the more difficult issues for St. Francis in the past year was managing a consent order from the state Department of Public Health that placed the hospital under two years of oversight.
The order, imposed in September 2024, cited the hospital’s failure to meet minimum staffing requirements for nurses and environmental services, as well as medication errors, among the reasons for the intervention.
Powell-Stafford declined to comment directly on the order, but the hospital provided a statement saying it has been working steadily to meet the state’s requirements.
“Over the past year, we have been actively engaged in fulfilling the terms of a consent order that was designed as a two-year initiative,” the statement said. “As part of this process, an independent expert has been on-site for the past year.”
It added that the expert will remain on-site through early 2026, “not as an extension of the consent order, but as part of the original agreement.”
The hospital also noted that, despite the consent order, for the 13th straight year, St. Francis was recognized as a Best Regional Hospital by U.S. News & World Report.
Also in early January, St. Francis settled its high-stakes federal antitrust lawsuit against Hartford HealthCare, which it filed two years ago.
St. Francis had alleged that Hartford HealthCare engaged in anticompetitive behavior by acquiring physician practices, steering referrals internally and securing exclusive rights to certain robotic equipment — actions the lawsuit claimed were part of an effort to “crush” or “bury” its competitor.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Moving the needle
Even while managing state oversight and other challenges, Powell-Stafford said St. Francis continues to advance programs aimed at supporting patients and the broader community.
One example is Trinity Health Of New England’s “Orange Bracelet Program,” which provides new mothers with orange rubber bracelets inscribed with “I gave birth,” helping clinical providers quickly identify recent postpartum patients and tailor care appropriately.
“It’s a statewide initiative, and it actually started right here with one of our perinatal nurses,” Powell-Stafford said. “It really helps prevent any complications.”
She noted that St. Francis has also improved its patient experience scores since September of last year.
“We’ve made a huge move of the needle in terms of our patient experience, and that’s publicly reported,” she said, adding that the hospital’s score in Google reviews is now in the excellent range. “So super excited about that. We’ve seen about a 16% increase in Google reviews.”
Powell-Stafford said that momentum, along with other positive developments at the hospital, will be highlighted through a new internal initiative called “Pressing Forward,” which launched during National Nurses Week in May.
“We have such a proud legacy,” she said, adding that the program will celebrate that legacy and the hospital’s “promising future.”
