LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The University of Louisville is making “contingency plans” to potentially move its medical programs based at Jewish Hospital to other facilities given uncertainty about the hospital’s future ownership, a U of L spokesman said in a statement Wednesday.
There is no timeline for the moves, however, which would involve significant regulatory hurdles.
Gary Mans, a spokesman for U of L’s Health Sciences Center, said Wednesday that U of L officials have been “developing contingency plans to move the six U of L clinical programs that are housed at Jewish Hospital” given that U of L’s academic affiliation agreement with KentuckyOne Health, the hospital’s owner, expires at the end of the year.
KentuckyOne Health, a subsidiary of the Colorado-based nonprofit Catholic Health Initiatives, has been negotiating for nearly a year to sell Jewish Hospital and adjacent Frazier Rehabilitation Center – as well two other hospitals and a number of other facilities – to BlueMountain Capital Management, a New York investment firm.
U of L doctors and medical residents have a “very large footprint” at Jewish Hospital and Frazier Rehab, providing about half the business at those facilities, U of L vice president for health affairs Greg Postel said earlier this year.
“Without our doctors working there, quite honestly, I don’t think anybody would buy those buildings because I don’t know what would go on there,” Postel said in January.
The U of L programs that would be moved are cardiology, cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, motility/gastroenterology, neurosurgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and solid organ transplant, Mans said in the statement.
U of L President Neeli Bendapudi first raised the possibility of moving the programs in an email to the Health Sciences Center campus on Tuesday.
“Given the current uncertainty around Jewish Hospital, we have begun a process of transitioning service lines to University of Louisville Hospital and elsewhere,” Bendapudi said in the email. She also mentioned creating an “operational transition plan.”
Mans’ statement did not say where else the programs might be housed, nor when they would move.
Spokesmen for KentuckyOne and BlueMountain Capital said Wednesday that the two sides continue working toward a deal for Jewish and the other KentuckyOne facilities.
“(Catholic Health Initiatives) and KentuckyOne Health continue to have productive discussions with University of Louisville and BlueMountain Capital Management that include the services provided at Jewish Hospital,” KentuckyOne spokesman David McArthur said.
A public relations firm working for BlueMountain Capital said: “Negotiations continue to advance and BlueMountain is working collaboratively with stakeholders to reach a successful transaction.”
In September, Jewish Hospital president Dr. Ron Waldridge said, “We are not planning for the closure of Jewish Hospital” during a press conference to celebrate the hospital’s organ transplant program.
Reach reporter Chris Otts at 502-585-0822, [email protected], on Twitter or on Facebook. Copyright 2018 WDRB News. All rights reserved.