{"id":3767,"date":"2015-01-05T10:33:43","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T15:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/?p=3767"},"modified":"2016-09-29T05:19:06","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T09:19:06","slug":"kosair-charities-of-louisville-breaking-ties-with-its-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/kosair-charities-of-louisville-breaking-ties-with-its-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Kosair Charities of Louisville Breaking Ties With Its Hospital."},"content":{"rendered":"

Elvis has already left the building!<\/strong><\/span>\"elvis-closeup-150\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Andy Wolfson of the Courier-Journal updated us<\/a> on the status of Kosair Charities Foundation\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> with a peek at Norton Healthcare\u2019s countersuit. It is amazing how different things can look when both sides of the story have been heard. I won\u2019t go into additional\u00a0details here as I have not yet seen the full brief myself. As was also the case in the tag-team lawsuit stemming from the University of Louisville\u2019s attempt to evict Norton from its Children\u2019s Hospital, attempts by the court and encouragement from the Commonwealth to have the matters settled by mediation failed. Frankly, this was not a surprise to me. It was made clear to anyone who can read that UofL wants to present a children\u2019s hospital to its new clinical partner, Kentucky One Health. It is also obvious that the University has already wooed Kosair Charities away from Norton. Mediation only works when both<\/span> sides are willing to compromise. All I see is scorched-earth tactics. In my opinion, UofL has been burning its bridges to Norton for years. In partnering with KentuckyOne, it put alligators in the moats.<\/p>\n

Kosair Charities got a lot for its money.?<\/strong>
\nSurprising to me was how relatively little Kosair Charities paid over the years for naming rights for Louisville\u2019s children\u2019s hospital. Two or three million dollars a year is a relative pittance compared to the mega-millions of uncompensated and charity care provided by Norton Healthcare and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I suspect that Norton can do quite well without Kosair Charities. Some 22 Shriner\u2019s medical facilities around the country underwrite the total medical bills for all<\/span> their patients, albeit in the organization\u2019s limited service hospitals. In 2011, the Shriners Hospitals for Children network is said to have assets of $8 Billion. UofL wants Kosair Charities money to bankroll its commercial research and clinical programs. In my opinion, Kosair Charities in Louisville was getting a great deal for the right to raise money in the Hospital\u2019s name and for the photo-op of handing over a big (in physical size) check.<\/p>\n

When the hat is passed\u2026?<\/strong>
\nChildren and their illnesses are often used for fundraising. When the Arthritis\u00a0Foundation lobbied Congress for favorable infusion payments for medicines used primarily for adults (and which have put rheumatologists at the top of lists of Medicare payments to physicians) it escorted children with arthritis to congressional offices. Who wouldn\u2019t want the best for kids? It\u2019s the Jerry Lewis approach to fundraising. It works. Perhaps Kosair thinks it can do better raising money for research under the University\u2019s brand. Kosair Charities has asked for a special master to inspect Norton\u2019s books. In fairness, Kosair Charities should open its books up too, as should UofL.<\/p>\n

New homes for Elvis.?<\/strong>
\nOf course, I can hope for the miracle that the parties will put the interests of our children ahead of their own, but I fear that the horse is already out of the barn. Proof that transfers of allegiance have already occurred are evident in the travels of the iconic statue often referred to as the Silent Messenger. I fondly called him Elvis. In my memory he has always stood in front of Norton-Kosair Children\u2019s Hospital with a child in his arms and carrying unused crutches\u2013 an image right out of Charles Dickens\u2019 Christmas Carol. When I went looking for Elvis a few weeks ago, guess what\u2014 he was gone from Kosair Children\u2019s Hospital!<\/p>\n

\"elvis-kyone\"<\/a>\u00a0\"kyone-plate\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps he left earlier when renovations to Children\u2019s Hospital began, but they are completed now and he has not returned. I found him next door at KentuckyOne Health where on a plaque Frazier Rehab Institute thanked Kosair Charities for \u201cits enduring partnership.\u201d There was no mention of the decades of association with Norton Healthcare or Kosair Children\u2019s Hospital. What is more, Elvis had been cloned! His new twin now also stands at the entrance of the newly-named Kosair Charities Clinical & Translational Research Building\u2013 UofL\u2019s principal commercial research facility. Its plaque recognizes Kosair Charities for its generous support of the Pediatric Center at the UofL James Graham Brown Cancer Center. In my opinion, this is a clear signal that UofL wants to draw pediatric patients with cancer away from Kosair Children\u2019s Hospital\u2014 just what the community needs. No doubt we will see yet another statue\u00a0when-and-if the new Kosair Charities\/ UofL pediatric outpatient clinic is built.<\/p>\n

\"elvis-research\"<\/a>\u00a0\"marker-res\"<\/a>\u00a0\"translational-res-bld\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Frankly, I was never a great fan of the statue. As an old rheumatologist, I hated the crutches and the use of the word \u201ccrippled\u201d \u2014 once used often in fundraising campaigns for musculoskeletal illness. The word bespeaks dependency and gratefully is uncommonly used any more to describe disabled people. What is<\/span> at risk of becoming crippled in Louisville today is a Children\u2019s hospital that has served our community well. As it happens, Elvis and his passenger were modeled after real people captured in a photograph. I wonder what Albert and Bobbi Jo would have to say about the conduct of this infelicitous affair. I would like to think they would be disappointed. I am.<\/p>\n

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
\nPresident, KHPI
\nEmeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
\nJanuary 5, 2015<\/p>\n

Addendum: \u00a0After I wrote and posted the article above, I obtained a copy of Norton’s Counterclaim<\/a>. \u00a0Read it for yourself (3.1 MB). \u00a0Its accusations are pretty specific and seemingly well documented. In my own mind it reinforces my belief that if an opening of the books is called for, it should be fully reciprocal for all parties. Additional\u00a0court documents assembled here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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