Earlier this week, the Kansas Board of Regents announced its unanimous approval of an affiliation agreement between Kansas City’s St. Luke’s Hospital and the Kansas University Medical Center. This followed an “agreement in principle” approved by the two health care facilities last month.

This agreement came about as a result of tremendous partisan political pressures, threats and/or blackmail, selfish interests and less-than-truthful claims.

There are many unanswered questions. If the giveaway to St. Luke’s does take place, time will tell whether the regents were right in accepting hook, line and sinker the proposal offered by KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, KU Medical Center Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Atkinson and St. Luke’s. It is extremely difficult to believe the regents were able to give sufficient study to the 43-page, single-spaced agreement with only one day to examine and ask questions before giving a unanimous vote for approval. Apparently, we have a number of knowledgeable speed readers serving as regents. Time will tell what impact this will have on the excellence of KUMC and KU Hospital. Unfortunately, however, those who agreed to the giveaway will be gone from the scene by then.

The timing of the agreement is interesting because it came only about a week after KU Hospital was named the fifth best academic medical center in the nation. Under the leadership of former CEO Irene Cumming and her fellow administrators, along with an excellent staff, KU Hospital rose near the top of this prestigious ranking.

The only flaw in this story is that Cumming had to resign her post due to pressures from Hemenway, Atkinson, some Johnson County would-be kingmakers and several prominent Kansas City business leaders. Some didn’t like her manner, some didn’t like her success, and one or two would do about anything to keep her from looking good.

Cumming, who played a major role in helping KU Hospital achieve its current national status, was strong and outspoken in her opposition to the giveaway to St. Luke’s.

In fact Atkinson, Hemenway, St. Luke’s leaders and a couple of high-profile Kansas City leaders put together the blueprint to strengthen St. Luke’s at the expense of KU Hospital and KUMC in secret and deliberately shut Cumming out of early discussions.

There is one giant hole remaining in the KUMC/St. Luke’s scheme. While there may be an “approval in principle” between Atkinson, her paid KUMC cronies, the ever-trusting and gullible regents and the St. Luke’s crowd, there is NO agreement between Atkinson’s KUMC and KU Hospital.

There still is much opposition among many at KU Hospital and numerous details to be agreed upon before KU Hospital officials and board members agree to be a party to the KUMC-St. Luke’s plan. The hospital is a critical part of the plan if it is to be structured to the satisfaction of St. Luke’s and Kansas City dealmakers. They need the hospital and/or a sizable degree of control over the hospital if the giveaway is to work for the benefit of St. Luke’s and Kansas City, Mo.

In an effort to try to force the hospital’s agreement and get the hospital committed, a blue ribbon group of Kansas City and St. Luke’s officials have requested a meeting with KU Hospital President and CEO Bob Page.

This meeting will take place at 9 a.m. Monday at KU Hospital. Those scheduled to attend are Irv Hockaday, Terry Dunn, Drue Jennings, Don Hall, Bill McDonald, Bill Hall and Rich Hastings. Guess what they want – or will demand? A spokesperson for the group has told a KU Hospital official that St. Luke’s wants a “full partnership” with KU in the cancer center effort.

St. Luke’s will not settle for anything less than one half of the “cancer franchise.”

In past months, Hemenway has said getting the Comprehensive Cancer Center designation is KU’s No. 1 priority. Now he is willing to share this designation with St. Luke’s – not only share the CCC or National Cancer Institute title but in the process weaken KU Hospital and KUMC. (To compound the mess, top individuals involved in securing the cancer center designation for other medical centers have told this writer, as well as some at KU Hospital, that the inclusion of St. Luke’s in the KU effort will NOT improve KU’s chances. It would be far better to work out an agreement with the Kansas City Oncology Center.)

Those attending the Monday meeting now make it very clear what the plan has been about from the very beginning: the preservation and strengthening of St. Luke’s and its facility at Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.

Great pressures will be exerted at the Monday meeting. A St. Luke’s representative has said if KU Hospital people do not agree to the K.C./St. Luke’s master plan for KU and KUMC, they will make a deal with Washington University and Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. They have made this threat or blackmail effort before, but KU Hospital officials and directors have placed the strength and independence of KU Hospital far above the pressure tactics of a handful of K.C. businessmen.

Fortunately for Kansas, former Senate President Dave Kerr, now a hospital board member, will be at the Monday meeting, and current legislators say Kerr will protect the hospital’s best interests. One said, “He’s as strong as current Senate President (Steve) Morris is weak.”

It’s apparent that cracks or strains are beginning to appear in the long-planned scheme to bring the KU Hospital and KUMC under the St. Luke’s umbrella or use KU Hospital and KUMC to help save St. Luke’s and try to restore it to its former leadership position in Kansas City.

The mission and goal of the Kansas City delegation meeting with Page on Monday offers one more piece of evidence of the importance of KU Hospital in the Kansas City, Mo., exercise. It’s a one-way street.

A tremendous number of details remain to be worked out with KU Hospital authorities before there is any agreement with St. Luke’s. KUMC people should realize any $40 million-plus annual payment by KU Hospital to KUMC will occur only if KU Hospital officials are comfortable they are preserving the excellence and independence of the hospital.

KU Hospital people do not plan to reduce their number of resident physicians, send some of their cardiac research back to St. Luke’s or give away an NCI or CCC designation if it should come about.

Thank goodness for a few Kansas legislators, such as House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, and those at KU Hospital who refuse to knuckle under to the illogical position of Hemenway and Atkinson, the political ambitions of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the selfish interests of some K.C. leaders. Too much is at stake in this St. Luke’s power play.