Kansas City, Kan. ? One word – “academic” – is one of the stickiest points remaining as Kansas University’s medical center tries to branch out of its relationship with its longtime partner hospital, KU Hospital.

In short, St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., wants to strike a deal with KU that would steer some KU medical programs there and enable St. Luke’s to call itself a “Major Academic Teaching and Research Hospital” of KUMC.

But KU Hospital leaders, who compete in the marketplace with St. Luke’s and are wary of losing brand value, don’t want the “a”-word used in St. Luke’s title.

“The branding issue is extremely important to us,” KU Hospital President and CEO Irene Cumming said Tuesday.

Despite that catch, a finalized agreement between KU and the two hospitals came one step closer to a reality Tuesday, as KU Hospital’s board unanimously approved a framework of what its relationship with the medical school could look like for the next decade.

Cumming said details of the agreement could be worked out by the end of May, despite a target date of March 31 that was set earlier this year.

“From the hospital’s standpoint, we don’t have a timeline,” she said.

Key points

Some highlights of the framework approved Tuesday:

¢ Kansas University Physicians Inc. – a group of 350 KU medical faculty who staff the medical center’s outpatient clinics – would merge with the doctors who work only for KU Hospital, creating one doctors’ group that hospital leaders say will make patients’ experience more streamlined.

¢ The money flowing from KU Hospital to the medical center would increase from $30 million to $43.5 million in the coming academic year, with the expectation that it will grow in the years ahead. It includes a plan to boost the salaries of KU medical faculty and to pay for an additional 39.5 residents next year. The hospital pledges to pay for 75 more resident positions, which would be added in the next decade.

¢ The plan also includes an allowance for the medical school to strike a deal with St. Luke’s, but with some limitations.

For example, KU would agree to keep all department heads at the medical center campus instead of transferring some to St. Luke’s.

KU Hospital would be called the “Primary Academic Clinical, Teaching and Research Hospital” of KUMC. St. Luke’s would be able to call itself a “Teaching and Research Hospital” of KUMC, or if some conditions are met, a “Major Teaching and Research Hospital” of KU.

The sticking point is that when the medical center signed a letter of intent earlier this year to affiliate with St. Luke’s, the letter included language that St. Luke’s could be labeled a “Major Academic Teaching and Research Hospital” of KUMC.

Today, at St. Luke’s, “they object to not having ‘academic'” in the title, said Barbara Atkinson, the medical center’s executive vice chancellor and dean of the KU School of Medicine.

She said St. Luke’s board was scheduled to meet Friday to discuss its planned affiliation with KU.

Cumming, KU Hospital’s CEO, said if the school didn’t find a way to strike “academic” from its planned agreement with St. Luke’s, “this deal would blow up.”

KU Hospital board member Dave Kerr, a former Kansas Senate president, said he wanted to make sure that before the board approved any finalized agreement, it had an opportunity to review KU’s deal with St. Luke’s.

Cumming said: “Clearly, our board can’t sign off unless we know for certain that there won’t be a conflict with the agreement with St. Luke’s.”

New CEO named

The meeting was marked by the appointment of KU Hospital Chief Operating Officer Bob Page to become the hospital’s next CEO and president. Cumming announced her resignation earlier this month and is leaving to become head of the Illinois-based University HealthSystem Consortium.

Page joined the hospital in 1996 as vice president for organizational improvement. In 2000, he was promoted to senior vice president and chief operating officer. Cumming credited Page with helping build patient-friendly processes throughout the hospital.

Three board members voted against Page’s appointment, including Atkinson, who said she wanted to see a nationwide search for the hospital’s next leader.

“I think Bob Page will be an outstanding CEO,” Atkinson said.