The RFP of the University of Louisville Remains Undead

UofL postpones partner selection for second time.

Just when you thought you were safe from any more non-data-driven updates from me about the status of the University’s search for a new business partner conducted under the invisibility cloak of its Request for Proposal (RFP), I got a reprieve. The Courier-Journal’s Laura Ungar reported over the weekend, that UofL had delayed its decision until “on or before September 28.” This three-month extension is longer than the the entire original RFP lifecycle filed earlier this year on February 23, with a deadline for responses of March 23, and an anticipated final selection the week of April 16! When April turned out to be the cruelest month, the decision deadline was extended to the end of June, and again now to the end of September.

On learning about the news, I offered the following statement:

This second postponement of an announcement about the RFP gives no clue how things are going from the University’s perspective. From my viewpoint, the news that the University wants to continue its top secret dealings about something so important to our community is very disappointing. UofL has justified many of its actions over the last few years in the name of providing indigent medical care, but those decisions are not the University’s alone to make. The longer the University administration delays engaging the public for its consent and support, the more we all have to lose. As Mayor Fischer recently pointed out, “there are outstanding questions regarding the most effective way to manage and provide indigent care.” That is a conversation that cannot be had behind closed doors.

I am jealous of the information-gathering networks of the card-carrying journalists among us. Ms. Ungar quoted a University spokesperson’s justification for the delay as needing more time for discussions and modifications. At recent private lobbying meeting of University officials with the Courier-Journal, it was revealed that negotiations were being conducted with more than one health care organization. Potential new partners remain silent or coy about their possible involvement. Silence is apparently golden, or at least worth gold to some.

UofL abandons its Hospital’s claim of private status!
I have not heard any justification of why UofL might have been forced to use an official state appropriation process as it moved forward, other than to keep its plans secret. Given its recent history, I can’t say I blame University leadership for wanting to hide its affairs. It does occur to me, that by using this official state process, the University of Louisville has abandoned its claim to run a private hospital. Surely the University can’t have it both ways– can they?

Will we ever move on?
Perhaps things are going well for the University, but as time goes by, the risks of inactivity for all of us rise. The University continues to lose credibility and respect from every private and governmental quarter of which I am aware, except for the investment community. The University of Louisville belongs to us all and this is an embarrassment that we should not allow to continue.

In the meantime, Jewish Hospital/ KentuckyOne Health, the once and future bride, has been left waiting at the alter. Time is not on its side as physicians continue to leave it. That organization deserves a chance to move on to to a different future. As the Vatican and its army of bishops wage their escalating war against healthcare reform and American nuns, the dogmatic doctrinal positions that helped cause an earlier acquisition to fail will only harden, making even a common-law relationship unworkable, if it ever was.

As for University Hospital, who really knows how good its financial health is, or could be if it were not used by UofL as a cash cow. University leadership is caught between a rock and a hard place as they try to avoid taking blame for running the hospital into the ground while at the same time wanting to appear to be bankrupt in order to force the community to accept their preferred solution. Their solution isolates a public University Hospital from large segments of the healthcare community and perpetuates a second class and segregated system of care that is in my view not acceptable. University Hospital has had more partners and divorces than Elizabeth Taylor. An honest discussion of why those earlier marriages failed would illuminate a meaningful community discussion of how we can in the most effective and just way manage and provide indigent care to our neighbors.

I have no real idea what is going on, only a vision of how I would like it to be. I would love for someone with real facts to email me or leave a comment. Enter your real name or a screen name. Email address is neither published nor necessary, but is an indication of credibility for me.  I will never reveal a source. I believe the community deserves better than we have been offered.

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
President, KHPI,
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL

One thought on “The RFP of the University of Louisville Remains Undead”

  1. This comment was left using only a screen name and without entering an email address. PH

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