Waterford — A Jewett City woman's complaint to the Office of Health Care Access has led the state to intervene in Hartford HealthCare's planned closure of an orthopedics office at the Crossroads Professional Building on Parkway South.

"We caught them — I don't know if we caught them in time, but we caught them," said Anne Grabowy, a patient of Dr. Frank Maletz, an orthopedic surgeon whose practice known widely as Crossroads Orthopedics is expected to permanently close at the end of the year.

Grabowy has been actively fighting the official Oct. 31 closure of Maletz's practice for the past two weeks and held a brief protest there earlier this week that attracted only three people.

The four-doctor practice — officially known as Backus Physician Services Orthopedic Surgery since its affiliation with the Backus Hospital network, which in turn is affiliated with Hartford HealthCare — also included Thomas Cherry, Jeffrey Salkin and Joseph Noonan, but now only Maletz remains to provide follow-up surgery care.

"We got booted out," said Doug Dickerson of Old Lyme, a longtime patient of Maletz.

Kimberly R. Martone, director of operations for the state Department of Public Health's office, said in a letter to Hartford HealthCare dated Nov. 30 that the decision to close the practice appears to require the filing of a certificate of need that is mandatory when a hospital terminates a service.

The hospital, which includes The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich as part of its network, did not file the paperwork, she said in the letter to Barbara A. Durdy, director of strategic planning for Hartford HealthCare. It could be fined for not doing so, she said in a separate email.

But Hartford HealthCare insists that no certificate of need was required because the closure resulted from Hartford HealthCare Medical Group's decision to terminate a contract with the surgeons who worked in the practice. The Office of Healthcare Access has authority over termination of services but has no jurisdiction over closure of physician offices.

"This was not a hospital-based practice," said Shawn Mawhiney, a spokesman for Hartford HealthCare, in an email.

In an email responding to questions from The Day, Martone indicated that if a certificate of need is found to be required, the hospital will have to show that the Crossroads closure will not hurt access to care, affect health care costs or be a big impact on one particular region.

"When hearings are held, the public can comment," she said. "We also accept letters from the public."

Grabowy said she can't wait to have patients tell their stories. Her main complaint is that Hartford HealthCare closed the practice without contacting the state or, apparently, even other orthopedic offices in the region to which it referred patients.

"Hartford HealthCare has acted abominably," said Grabowy, the daughter of a physician.

Crossroads patient Lou Basile of New London said he has called — without luck — all six orthopedic practices from North Franklin to New Haven that were listed in a Sept. 1 letter from Hartford HealthCare as suggested places where he could move his care. Several were not taking any new patients, he said, and none that were accepting outside clients would take his insurance.

"It's crazy how they up and dumped us like we were an unwanted child," Basile said.

Basile said he has been trying for more than a month to find a local orthopedic specialist. He said he may have to travel to the University of Connecticut Medical Center in Farmington more than 50 miles away to find a doctor to help him.

Grabowy said Basile's story isn't unusual. No one on TriCare, Medicare or workers compensation insurance is able to get into the six offices listed by Hartford HealthCare, she said.

What's more, according to Ken Ferrucci, senior vice president of government affairs for the Connecticut State Medical Society, Hartford HealthCare in its letter suggested patients call the medical society's office for assistance in finding a new physician and provided the organization's phone number without consulting it beforehand.

"When you have a large practice closing or moving, there definitely should be a plan for continuity of care," Ferrucci said.

Exactly how many patients are affected is up for debate.

Maletz was not available for comment Friday, but several patients reported that he had discussed having 61,000 patient records in his office. Hartford HealthCare said not quite 6,500 patients received letters notifying them of the office closure, reflecting active clients over the past two years, but Basile, for one, never got a letter despite being an active patient, he said.

"Sixty-one thousand patients are basically being abandoned by Hartford HealthCare," Grabowy said. "I want it stopped. It's a matter of life and death for some patients."

Grabowy and others said patients have become so furious about the closing that security personnel have had to be stationed there.

"We are not aware of any armed guards," Mawhiney of Hartford HealthCare said in response.

Grabowy said she is suspicious about the timing of the practice's closure since it closely parallels the opening last month of the $150 million Hartford HealthCare's Bone & Joint Institute at Hartford Hospital. She said it's certainly conceivable that the large local practice was closed partly to help stock the new facility with new patients.

"I don't believe in coincidences in this world," she said.

Hartford HealthCare denied the claim.

"The facility has been in the planning and construction stages for years, and it is not our objective to move patients from one of our settings to another," spokesman Mawhiney said.

He added that Hartford HealthCare offered to waive the noncompete clause that surgeons in the orthopedic group signed to allow them to continue practicing in the area. One of the surgeons, Cherry, has decided to continue practicing, he noted.

Grabowy said she is hoping her protests will lead Hartford HealthCare to rethink its decision to close the practice permanently or that the state can put pressure on the hospital network to retain orthopedic specialists.

"This kind of hit us like a ton of bricks," she said. "We're not going to stand for this decison. We're coming after them."

l.howard@theday.com