Task force report: Hospital, medical center need deal

Kansas University Medical Center and Kansas University Hospital have to strike a deal for the region to move ahead with its goal to be a leader in life sciences, according to a recent report by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.

A task force, led by former Yale University president Benno Schmidt Jr., compiled the report after studying higher education in the Kansas City area.

“The most pressing thing at the moment is for the hospital situation to resolve itself in some constructive way so that the KU Medical Center can be positioned in the best way to grow in stature and scope and quality as a first-rate academic medical center,” Schmidt said Wednesday.

Schmidt’s comments came on the heels of the report “One Year Later: Time To Get Things Done,” which called for stronger collaborations and greater philanthropic support in Kansas City’s effort to become a life sciences hub.

The document – authored by Schmidt – is a follow-up to “Time to Get It Right,” a 2005 report that offered a strategic plan for life sciences and higher education.

The new report calls for KUMC and the University of Missouri-Kansas City to create compelling plans for attracting philanthropic support. It lauds Kansas State University for its plans to create a campus for research and academic programs in Olathe.

It also urges the Kansas Bioscience Authority to make the medical center prominent in its plans. And it calls for Truman Medical Center and the UMKC medical schools to be included in KU Medical Center’s ongoing discussions about collaborations with hospitals in the region.

Backed by 2005’s report, KU Medical Center has been exploring new alliances with hospitals in the Kansas City area.

But KU Hospital, which has had the closest ties to the medical center, has worried that some of those alliances could be bad for its business. And the hospital has pitched a $400-million proposal for a 10-year affiliation agreement with the medical center. The proposal secures the hospital as the medical center’s primary teaching hospital and also calls for excluding St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., as a site for full-residency affiliations.

Schmidt said Wednesday that KU Medical Center needs to collaborate with other area hospitals in order to grow and meet its goal to receive the “comprehensive cancer center” designation from the National Cancer Institute.

“I think all of the hospitals have a great deal to gain from creating a situation where the KU Medical Center can become one of the leading ones in the country,” he said.

KU Hospital spokesman Dennis McCulloch declined to comment on the new report and said, “At this point we are not in a position to say anything.”

Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor for the medical center, said talks with KU Hospital are moving quickly.

“We’ve still got several issues to deal with, but my hope would be within the next couple months, we’ll have those agreements done and move on to other things,” she said.

Atkinson said her top priority is obtaining affiliations and getting a base of physicians and scientists who work together for research.

She said the medical center is preparing to unveil a multiyear vision strategy that outlines more than a dozen emerging and established programs, such as diabetes and cancer, and provides plans for each.

She said many of the programs are collaborative with other hospitals or entities.

“We need to work on where the financial support over a considerable period of time will come from,” she said.