First Oral Arguments in Norton Healthcare vs. University of Louisville

Last Wednesday, I made a field trip to Frankfort for what is to my knowledge, the first face-to-face extended oral argument between the University of Louisville and Norton Healthcare over Norton Kosair Children’s Hospital. It is easy for me to get lost in the sequence of the legal proceedings, but nominally the hearing was over Norton’s motion to dismiss UofL’s counterclaims to its original motion of last year for Declaratory Relief from UofL’s attempt to seize physical control of its Children’s Hospital. (You see what I mean?) As I understand it, even if Norton were to succeed this week, the legal dispute between the two parties would not be over. Nonetheless, the two-hour hearing laid out the major positions and tenor of both parties and was instructive. Continue reading “First Oral Arguments in Norton Healthcare vs. University of Louisville”

UofL Hires New Director for Bone Marrow Transplant Program.

One program or two?

I had not planned on writing quite so soon about bone marrow transplantation, but in doing my background work on U.S. News & World Report’s designation of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center as a regional high-performing cancer program, I learned that the Center has just recruited a new director for their bone marrow transplant program. Dr. William Tse is an experienced clinician and academician, was recruited from West Virginia University, and will begin in Louisville in early November. This was a fast, high-priority recruitment for the University of Louisville and the Brown Cancer Center following the loss of several clinical and research faculty faculty to the University of Kentucky, and a requirement for a minimal number of specifically-trained physicians to retain essential accreditation. Bone marrow transplantation, part of the growing field of cellular or stem-cell therapy, currently plays important part in the treatment of leukemia and other malignant diseases, and of inherited genetic disorders. Cellular therapy comprises a prominent part of the University’s commercial research portfolio.

Things looking up?
I had the opportunity to speak with one of the program’s current physicians who is optimistic about the future of the program. Although I was not given the updated procedure numbers for the two programs, I am told that they are on the way back up, as are are the numbers of clinical research protocols planned. Here is a chart updated with numbers of bone marrow transplants in 2013 as reported to the state. Continue reading “UofL Hires New Director for Bone Marrow Transplant Program.”

Additional Court Documents Available In Kosair Charities v. Norton Healthcare.

court-jacketI made another pilgrimage yesterday to Jefferson Circuit Court to review all the available public documents in this internecine dispute. In particular, I had not seen the various affiliation and other agreements between the two parties. It seems to me the case will hinge on how these agreements are interpreted.

This time I got lucky and was able to photograph everything in the official court jacket including Norton’s motion to dismiss Kosair Charities’ complaint, and Kosair Charities’ response.  Accompanying as attachments to these motions were a number of major agreements made over the last 30 years between the two organizations. Links to all the items are presented below.  Frankly, I have not yet had time to analyze all the documents, but it appears that most of the major arguments on either side are now out in the open. I will try to get my head around them. I confess I do so with a sense of sadness. Any help in interpretation would be appreciated. Let me know if I got any of the links wrong.

The Attorney General’s Office filed to intervene. My interpretation of the documents is that the request to join the case as a plaintiff was approved.

I had a specific interest in why Plaintiff Kosair Charities requested that Judge Perry recuse himself. I anticipated that the grounds for such a request would be made available to the public, but the recusal and transfer of the case to Division 13 and Judge Fred Cowan was made without additional comment. I suspect that the pace of the case will slow a bit as it wends its way to its new home.

Peter Hasselbacher
President, KHPI
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
Sept 5, 2014


Court Documents in Kosair Charities Committee v. Norton Healthcare,

Jefferson Circuit Court 14 CI 02523jacket-cover-court-docs Continue reading “Additional Court Documents Available In Kosair Charities v. Norton Healthcare.”

Crunch Time for UofL Bone Marrow Transplantation Program.

bmt-ky-1999-2012For the 30 years in which I have been associated with the University of Louisville, it’s bone marrow transplantation program has been a feather in its cap and that of the James G. Brown Cancer Center. The University of Louisville Hospital holds the Certificate of Need (CON) for adult bone marrow transplantation in Louisville – one of the tiny handful of programs that other local hospitals could not take away or did not want. Therefore I was concerned when I began to hear of doctors-lounge gossip that the program was going through a difficult patch. Unfortunately, a review of publicly available information validates my concern. Continue reading “Crunch Time for UofL Bone Marrow Transplantation Program.”