Negotiations centering on a new master affiliation between Kansas University Hospital and KU Medical Center have been in process for more than a year.

More than a year of negotiations and recriminations centering on a new master affiliation between Kansas University Hospital and KU Medical Center likely will end today.

At least everyone hopes so.

“There has been a tremendous constructive atmosphere the last few months. We are thrilled the win-win-win we have called for is within reach,” said Dennis McCulloch, a spokesman for KU Hospital.

The affiliation includes changes to the relationship between the hospital, the medical center and the Kansas University Physicians Inc. practice group, which serves as an umbrella group for the doctors who work at the hospital and medical center.

When this process began, KU Hospital leaders said the affiliation deal the university was asking for would damage the hospital’s ability to compete in the Kansas City market. KU Medical Center leaders said the center wouldn’t be able to achieve designation as National Cancer Institute without broader affiliations and the ability to share the “KU Cancer Center” brand with other hospitals.

“We’re cautiously optimistic about the agreement,” said Amy Jordan Wooden, KU Medical Center spokeswoman. “Last I heard, there was an attorney meeting (Monday afternoon) to make final crossings of Ts and dotting of Is.”

KU Hospital officials who have seen outlines of the agreement said the final draft to be presented to the authority board will include a lot of content that already has been discussed. KU Hospital will maintain its current level of residencies and will increase that number in the coming years.

KU Medical Center also will receive more money from KU Hospital in support of the medical center’s mission. KU Hospital is expected to provide about $45 million per year, up from $30 million in the old contract.

The new affiliation is expected to allow KU Hospital to hire faculty independent of the medical center if a special clinical situation should arise.

Also, relating to faculty, the KUPI group is expected to receive greater autonomy than it had under the previous affiliation.

Most of those provisions have been widely known for some time, and recent negotiations focused on how the “KU Cancer Center” brand would be used. Right now, KU Hospital is the only organization entitled to use of the KU brand in clinical situations.

The new affiliation is expected to say that KU Hospital is the only entity that can use the KU Cancer Center name “without modification.” Other hospitals like St. Luke’s in Kansas City, Mo., and Stormont-Vail in Topeka could call themselves “an affiliate of” the KU Cancer Center or the Midwest Cancer Alliance, depending on what sort of branding KU chooses to use going forward.

KU Hospital is expected to continue to oversee all clinical care of cancer patients under the new affiliation.

Once the KU Hospital Authority board approves the affiliation today, it then goes to the Kansas Board of Regents, who meet Thursday. KUPI leadership is expected to take up the affiliation at its meeting Thursday night.