Topeka ? Kansas University Medical Center and its teaching hospital, KU Hospital, have improved their working relationship in recent months, officials from both institutions said Tuesday.

The update came as lawmakers started studying two sweeping audits into the operations and finances of both KUMC and KU Hospital.

The audits were ordered last spring after months of bitter fighting between the two institutions.

“We’ve kind of cleared the air,” said state Rep. Peggy Mast, R-Emporia, and chairwoman of the Legislative Post-Audit Committee.

The audits found no major problems at either institution.

KUMC Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Atkinson said she was “completely pleased” by the findings.

“I think it was very positive for us and very positive for the hospital,” Atkinson said.

Both Atkinson and Bob Page, chief executive officer of KU Hospital, said the two institutions were close to hammering out a new working and finance agreement.

“The future is very bright,” Page said.

The audits were ordered after KUMC sought a cross-border affiliation between it and St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

Under the recently signed deal, KUMC will receive $1 million per year for four years from St. Luke’s. The funds will be used to promote research and hire faculty, Atkinson said.

The affiliation also calls for 100 new medical resident positions at St. Luke’s and allows the hospital to use the KU brand.

KUMC leaders have insisted the agreement would help the university achieve National Cancer Institute designation, enhance research for life-saving drugs, and train more doctors for Kansas.

But through the negotiating process, KU Hospital, which is the medical school’s primary partner, has said that the affiliation could hurt the hospital’s progress by helping its competitors in the Kansas City region.

And powerful legislators have said Kansas tax dollars used to support the medical school would be flowing to Missouri and that the affiliation would hurt the core mission of KU Med to produce physicians for Kansas.

The audit was launched by lawmakers after several attempts to restrict KU’s affiliation efforts failed during the 2007 legislative session.

But on Tuesday, Atkinson continued to defend the affiliation with St. Luke’s. “It allows us in the Kansas City region to become a leader in the life sciences,” she said.

And Page said the fates of both KUMC and KU Hospital are intertwined.

“We know that in order to succeed, we need to succeed together,” he said.