By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Dec. 11
Much remains up in the air in the ongoing affiliation negotiations between University of Kansas Hospital and the University of Kansas Medical Center.
But some things are certain, KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway told legislators Monday. Chief among them is that there will be no affiliation agreement that would mean fewer resident physicians from the university serving at the KU Hospital.
“The issue of most concernis reduction of residencies. We won”t have decline in the number of residents at KU Hospital, but in the long run we hope there are more,” Hemenway told members of the joint Legislative Budget Committee.
Hemenway also pledged there would be no affiliations that “transfer Kansas taxpayer dollars to directly benefit Missouri-based institutions.”
Hemenway”s appearance before the committee was meant to ease public and legislative concerns about proposed affiliations involving the state”s only teaching hospital and other Kansas City area medical centers as part of a broad plan for making Kansas City nationally prominent in the field of biosciences.
The KU Medical Center, which is home to the KU School of Medicine, has been considering new affiliations with St. Luke”s and Children”s Mercy hospitals, both headquartered across the state line. On Nov. 14, KU Hospital, which is in Kansas City, Kan., made an almost $400 million offer to the medical school and center.
Details of that plan, which would spread the money over 10 years, weren”t made public until Barbara Atkinson, the medical school”s dean, wrote a Nov. 27 letter to KU Medical Center staff outlining the proposal. Subsequent press accounts and editorial columns brought broader attention to the affiliation negotiations and raised questions among some legislators.
According to Atkinson”s letter, the proposal from the KU Hospital included the following stipulations that required “further review.”
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There would be a new governance structure for the physician residency program.
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Clinical activity by KU Medical Center and its physicians would be integrated with that of University of Kansas Hospital.
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There would be a 10-year master affiliation agreement.
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St. Luke”s hospital would be excluded from full residency affiliations.
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Affiliates could not use KU School of Medicine/KU Hospital branding, a marketing concern.
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The school of medicine would focus on research and education and KU Hospital would focus on clinical care.
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KU Hospital would remain the primary teaching hospital.
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KU Hospital would be the lead clinical facility as KU seeks federal designation as a National Cancer Institute.
The KU Hospital is the bigger of the two operations once equally bound to the university and the state before the Legislature in 1998 created an independent authority to oversee the hospital.
According to Dave Kerr, a member of the authority and former Kansas Senate president, the hospital now has more than 3,550 employees and the biggest physician practice in the state. It has a new $77 million center for advanced heart care and the region”s only level-one trauma and burn center. Its revenues have grown from $170 million in 1996 to $516 million in 2006.
Kerr”s testimony to the committee followed that of Hemenway, also a hospital authority member, and likewise was meant to assure lawmakers and the public that KU and the authority had everything under control, despite some concerns voiced in editorials and newspaper accounts that there should be more legislative involvement in the affiliation negotiations.
In response to the testimony, key legislators on the committee, including chairman Sen. Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, and Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said they had no interest in “micromanaging” the negotiations.
A spokesman for KU later said there was no timeline for completing an affiliation agreement.
Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
mshields@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 123.