UofL and Norton Healthcare go to the Mattresses.

The Battle for Ownership of Norton Kosair Children’s Hospital.

I do not have a feeling for how this is going to turn out, but the University of Louisville has loosed its dogs of war and nothing will be as it was. Perhaps that is for the good, because the existing structure of the downtown medical center was becoming more and more dysfunctional. Much of what is being aired now in terms of accusation and response is targeted to the media and public opinion. Ultimately a solution will be based on previous agreements to the extent that they are still valid and rational, and, if there is any reason and justice in the world, what our state government leadership judges is best for the citizens of Louisville and the Commonwealth.

After approving and even endorsing the partnership between the University of Louisville and Catholic Health Initiatives/KentuckyOne Health in which the University gave up significant pieces of its academic, clinical, and research independence, Kentucky’s Governor and Attorney General promised us they would monitor how the University of Louisville handled its subsequent affairs. Now is a good time to do so! I have already called for an unwinding of the current partnership structure for other reasons.

While the initial legal and political maneuvering in the background goes on, and in the absence of any inside information at all (Hint, hint!), I begin here to analyze available documents that are said to control our community’s future. In this with additional documents, I will pose questions for which I think the pubic deserves answers in order that it will be able to express it own reasoned opinions to the parties involved, including to our public officials.

In the first (and earliest) document available to me, I find no requirement that Norton Healthcare operate a children’s hospital to the exclusive benefit of any entity within the University of Louisville. Indeed, any benefit is assigned equally to all citizens of Kentucky. Neither do I find in this initial primary document that the lack of an affiliation agreement voids the lease held by Norton. Circumstances that may have made sense 30 years ago have changed dramatically. No party in the current confrontation deserves to be held hostage by the other. Continue reading “UofL and Norton Healthcare go to the Mattresses.”