There is bound to be some fallout or consequences from the more-than-yearlong negotiations between Kansas University Hospital, KU Medical Center and St. Luke’s Hospital.

The original plan for the giveaway by KU Hospital and Medical Center to St. Luke’s was conceived in secrecy and was due to be signed, sealed and delivered in January 2007. Now, a year later, there is going to be a summit between Kansas and Missouri governors where much will be made about the cooperation between the two states, using the hospital deal as an example of what can be accomplished across state lines.

However, those pushing the St. Luke’s side of the deal fell short of expectations. They didn’t get everything they wanted, and KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway and KU Medical Center Vice Chancellor Barbara Atkinson didn’t deliver as much as many had expected. Likewise, there is significant disappointment among the St. Luke’s crowd that their hospital did not gain as much as was hoped.

This week, St. Luke’s chief operating officer Mark McPhee either resigned his position or was eased out by the powers at St. Luke’s. McPhee was St. Luke’s chief representative in almost a year and a half of affiliation “negotiations,” and it is clear he didn’t get everything the Missouri hospital and its proponents had wanted.

It may be that St. Luke’s President Rich Hastings is unhappy with the deal St. Luke’s made with KU Hospital and KU Medical Center, and McPhee is the fall guy. Perhaps McPhee had hoped to move up in the St. Luke’s management/leadership team and Hastings has decided to stay on longer than some had anticipated.

Whatever the case, St. Luke’s COO is gone, and there are likely to be other changes on both sides of the state line for some time to come because of the efforts to strengthen St. Luke’s at the expense of KU.

The unfortunate part of this situation is that it didn’t have to end this way if the major players had been out in the open from the start and if KU Medical Center people had not tried to design and implement the plan without input and participation by KU Hospital leaders. Secrecy, doubletalk and phony threats are not the way to build and develop a meaningful and lasting relationship.