LJWorld.com / KU Hospital board endorses modification to affiliation agreement

Archive for Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Members of the planned Cancer Partners Advisory Board will be called affiliates of the Midwest Cancer Alliance

May 13, 2008

Westwood — The Kansas University Hospital Authority board endorsed a technical addendum to its affiliation agreement with KU Medical Center and KU Physicians Inc., in order to advance discussions on a planned Cancer Partners Advisory Board.

In its meeting Tuesday morning, the board said it would support affiliates of the KU Cancer Center calling themselves affiliates of the Midwest Cancer Alliance. The change was necessary because the affiliation agreement said organizations would call themselves affiliates of the KU Cancer Center — and some hospitals, including St. Luke’s in Kansas City, Mo., did not want to market themselves using the name of a competing hospital.

The advisory board will include KUMC and various regional hospitals and research organizations. So far, however, no organizations have formally joined the group. Late last month, St. Luke’s board of directors endorsed its participation — based on the caveat the group would not bear the name of a competitor.

“We’ve been on board with this from day one,” KU Hospital CEO Bob Page said. “We helped create it. We’re going to do what we can to advance a regional partnership.”