Hartford HealthCare’s Windham Hospital and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital received first-year awards of about $9.25 million and $3.41 million, respectively, from Connecticut’s Rural Health Transformation Program to fund a new inpatient rehabilitation unit and a mobile stroke unit.

At Windham Hospital, the funding will create an inpatient rehabilitation unit for patients recovering from serious illness, injury, surgery, stroke and other medical conditions in eastern Connecticut. The unit is planned to open in summer 2027 and will include physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and other rehabilitation specialists.

At Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, a new Mobile Stroke Unit will serve Northwest Connecticut and is expected to begin operating no later than January 2028, subject to regulatory approval. It will work with local EMS agencies responding to suspected strokes and is expected to include a mobile CT scanner and telemedicine capabilities for stroke assessments and neuroimaging in the field.

The Connecticut Department of Social Services leads the program, which includes 30 projects serving nearly 510,000 residents across 75 towns and the state’s two federally recognized tribal nations.

Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, said: “This is a defining moment for rural health in Connecticut. At Hartford HealthCare, we remain deeply committed to all the communities we serve, and we have doubled down on that commitment in rural Connecticut, where access to high-quality care can shape the future of entire communities. We are proud to be the leader in rural healthcare in our state, and we recognize both the challenges and the extraordinary opportunities ahead.”

Connecticut received approximately $154 million in the program’s first year from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.