The University of Kansas Hospital is located near West 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard in Kansas City, Kan.

This week, the University of Kansas Hospital and Hays Medical Center are operating under a new partnership officials say will improve health care for Kansans living far from Kansas City.

Since the planned partnership was first announced in September, details have been finalized and the agreement took effect Sunday.

The partnership — a first for the hospital — represents a long-awaited milestone from the Kansas Legislature’s charge that created the hospital authority, KU Hospital president and CEO Bob Page said. That charge, in part, says KU Hospital should “provide patient care and specialized services not widely available elsewhere in the state” and other public services to all citizens of the state of Kansas.

It took years for KU Hospital to get its own act together and find sound footing, Page said. Now it’s situated to meet the charge by expanding its reach.

“Now that we’ve righted the ship and are moving in the right direction … we’re in a better position to provide that support,” Page said. “We’re the only academic medical center in the state of Kansas, and we have a responsibility to Kansans.”

The KU-Hays partnership won’t result in many day-to-day changes that employees and staff will notice, Page said. He said it’s not a merger or acquisition; rather, it’s based on relationships and collaboration to standardize patient care.

“We have spent months preparing to begin this partnership,” Page said. “Now the hospitals can truly work as one to improve the health of Kansans.”

John Jeter, who will continue to serve as CEO of Hays Medical Center, said the final negotiations went smoothly.

“When both parties share the same patient-care philosophy and vision, final agreements flow naturally,” Jeter said, in a news release from KU Hospital. “Our staff is excited now that the partnership agreement is complete and we can begin realizing our goals for this partnership.”

According to the KU Hospital announcement, the basic elements of the newly enacted agreement remain unchanged from the earlier letter of intent:

• Staff will continue to be employed by their current organizations.

• Both hospitals will keep their respective boards, the Hays Medical Center Board of Directors and the KU Hospital Authority Board.

• A new operations council, made up of members from both organizations, has been formed and is tasked with directing the partnership.

The letter of intent also said the two hospitals would produce a consolidated financial report.

Page said the operations council would have not a governing role but a management role. He said the council will include leadership team members from both hospitals who would communicate and discuss operations and share best practices.

The partnership will provide for easier transitions for patients who exhaust the level of care Hays can provide, Page said. It also will probably eventually see the expansion of telemedicine, something that has been shown to work through the Kansas Heart and Stroke Collaborative, a separate and ongoing initiative that puts into place more prevention, consistent emergency protocols, telemedicine, follow-up care and teamwork between KU Hospital and more than a dozen small hospitals in Western Kansas, including Hays.

“It’s all about relationships,” Page said. “These things work or don’t work based on relationships.”

Page said the KU-Hays Medical Center partnership is new for Kansas but that it mirrors a national trend.

“If you look across the country, academic medical centers are all getting larger, and they’re all forming relationships with community hospitals within their state or within their region,” Page said. “For us, this just makes perfect sense.”