Category: Hospitals

KentuckyOne Health Buys Largest Block of Land at Dupont Medical Center

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The plot thickens, but what is the plot?

It seems like the juiciest news stories break when I am out of town. Last week, John Karman and David Mann of Business First, and Sheldon Schafer of the Courier-Journal informed us that KentuckyOne Health was purchasing additional land at the Dutchmans Lane/DuPont Circle medical center in eastern Louisville. The purchase price has not yet been disclosed.

I have been waiting for this other shoe to fall. This acquisition gives KentuckyOne Health control of a huge block of land making up fully one half of Dupont Circle adjacent to its existing Jewish Hospital East facility. The total land now held rivals the amount occupied by Norton Suburban Hospital. I haven’t seen any contracts yet (and do not expect to), but I understand that some sort or purchase agreement has been prepared and that the sale “won’t be completed for three years in order to honor the leases of the 15 tenants in the center.”  (I did not think that closings could be delayed that long.)  As it happens, all but two of the lots on that half of Dupont Circle are owned or controlled by realtor and former University of Louisville Trustee, Sandra Metts. In my opinion, the sale of land to UofL’s best new partner has never been in serious doubt. Continue reading “KentuckyOne Health Buys Largest Block of Land at Dupont Medical Center”

Major New Medical Center at Old Henry Road

header-600Additional photographs and maps supporting this article can be seen here.

Another place to collect medical dollars. Is the sky the limit?
In a previous posting, I categorized my effort at investigative journalism as a Hardy Boys adventure. I had in mind the young detectives of my boyhood reading, but a friend advised me that modern-day Hardy Boys are members of US military special forces who conduct “dark” operations. Given the nature of the secrecy surrounding healthcare planning in Louisville, perhaps I am on target in either scenario. In any case, to maintain an appropriate image of impartiality, I conducted my next excursion to the east as Nancy Drew.

As the growth of medical facilities in Louisville has evolved, all three major hospital systems have leapfrogged beyond the confines of the Watterson Expressway to the Gene Snyder Freeway (I-265) and beyond. Of course, this is neither unexpected nor unjustifiable. This is where Louisville’s population is settling — especially those with good medical insurance. I might offer my services there too. Indeed, as a patient, unless there was some special reason I needed to go downtown, I too would rather stay closer to home. Inspection of maps, real estate transactions, and observations on the ground make it clear to me that our hospitals are ready, willing, and able to expand their east-county facilities even further. New construction has already begun. What will stay downtown remains to be seen. This article will focus on the developing medical center springing up around the intersection of the Gene Snyder and Old Henry Road. I invite you to share my field trip with me and to add what you can.

Continue reading “Major New Medical Center at Old Henry Road”

Hospitals love their cardiologists– and are willing to buy their affection!

bemine2Back in the days when I was a hospital lobbyist, my colleagues voiced the generally accepted fact that Medicare and other insurers overpaid for cardiology services. As a medical student, I was taught the Willie Sutton Law of Medicine– “When looking for a diagnosis, think of common things first.” [When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, his answer was, “Because that’s where the money is.”] While I by no means wish to imply that all hospitals are stealing our tax and premium dollars, an increasing parade of nationwide criminal investigations, indictments, and convictions make it clear that some hospitals and their doctors are shaking the cardiology piggy bank too hard. Continue reading “Hospitals love their cardiologists– and are willing to buy their affection!”

Serious Accusations of Medical Overtreatment Made Against Responders to UofL’s Partner Search.

[Correction: Because of a systematic error in the on-line database of the Kentucky Hospital Association, the number of angioplasties reported for all hospitals in 2011 was exactly double. This caused me to under-estimate  the sharp drop in procedures at St. Joseph London, and erroneously indicated a statewide increase for that year. Corrected charts, tables, and discussion are substituted in the text below.]

The University of Louisville’s new academic and clinical partner, KentuckyOne Health, and its erstwhile suitor, Health Management Associates (HMA), have both been in the news lately but not in a favorable light. A story about HMA was the leadoff feature of the December 2 edition of a 60 Minutes program in which HMA was alleged to have exercised inappropriate and computer-assisted influence over its physicians to admit patients from the emergency rooms of its hospitals who would not otherwise have required inpatient-hospitalization. One of KentuckyOne’s hospitals, St. Joseph London, has been sued and is under federal scrutiny for claims it was performing unnecessary invasive cardiac procedures and worse, operating on patients with normal hearts. For many reasons, these are serious allegations, not least because they impute the ethics and professionalism of the hospital’s management, medical staff, and employees. It would also put human lives at risk without chance of benefit and be be a waste of our collective tax and insurance premium dollars.

Continue reading “Serious Accusations of Medical Overtreatment Made Against Responders to UofL’s Partner Search.”