A significant loss to the community or not?

On Aug 1, the Courier-Journal’s hard-working Laura Ungar reported that the University of Louisville was cutting some services available to its hospital patients. The digital version of the report was quickly picked up by national media. Ashok Selvam, a reporter for the industry news magazine, Modern Healthcare, could not elicit comment from the Hospital itself. His story gave the impression that the cuts were a consequence of last December’s failed merger with Catholic Health Initiatives. It seems to me that such an interpretation is exactly the story line that UofL has been using as it maneuvers to finally consummate such a marriage. Additionally, UofL has been forecasting reduced services to the indigent for many months as it argues before the Louisville Metro Council for additional public funding. Without some actual cuts in evidence, such promises might appear hollow. Given its claims of poverty and need for more tax dollars, I am not surprised that UofL might want to provide some kind of evidence that the sky really might be falling in.

Fortunately for Louisville, Ms. Ungar was very successful in eliciting more information. Despite the fact that UofL President Ramsey recently went out of his way to say that he makes it a point not to read the Courier-Journal, the Hospital would have lost much local credibility if it had stonewalled. So, what were the actual services that are said to be cut, and how might they be related to a failure of the merger or to the provision of indigent care? I must say that I agree with the comment from the Louisville Mayor’s office that “it appears these services are not critical.” Lets take a look ourselves. Continue reading “UofL Hospital Cuts Some Clinical Services.”