University of Louisville Hospital to share in the employee cuts.
Breaking Information. 6:00 p.m.
It is no secret that KentuckyOne has been losing money continuously across the state. Contacts have told me that the amounts are as much as $70 million per quarter and growing. Little wonder then that KentuckyOne and Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) may not have transferred the funds they promised to the University of Louisville and to the Governor to seal their deal to take over University Hospital. The remaining shoe has finally dropped.
New information makes me think that CHI has lost its tolerance for the sustained losses. KentuckyOne state-wide chief executive Ruth Brinkley has told her employees that big changes are upon them immediately. Some $218 million must be cut from expenditures before the end of Fiscal Year 2015, only 17 months from now. There is no way that can be done without dismissing some employees. Services will be “integrated and consolidated” among various KentuckyOne facilities, and “ the size of our workforce will align with service and facility changes.” These comments have been echoed by University Hospital President Ken Marshall to his Louisville employees.
No doubt these pressures have been behind the plans to discontinue some psychiatric services at University Hospital, and to transfer cardiac catheterization and angioplasty services from University to Jewish Hospital. I am told that although UofL seemed to back off from that latter announcement to take the heat off, the transfer of cardiac services to Jewish is a done deal. Private cardiac services at Jewish Hospital will be consolidated and staffed by a single KentuckyOne-branded cardiology group led by UofL faculty members.
Thus the continuing diminution of University Hospital continues.
No doubt there will be more to come. What are you hearing? Have I made any errors in fact or interpretation? I would want to correct any.
Peter Hasselbacher, MD
President, KHPI
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
January 26, 2014
There is much misery at ULH. Director-level employees are going to be reduced, but only after March 1, when the compensation packages end for those people. Some are very near being able to take full retirement benefits, but if laid off after 3/1 and before they reach 66 they will be hurting. Betrayed, even,because of the hard work done by these leaders who brought ULH to the highest quality and financial metrics in years. This may bring up some EEOC issues. There is no outcry because there is so much fear. Many of us believe it is well-past time to un-wind.
AND, there are so many quality concerns we have related to the different level/standards of care at our new “sister” hospitals.