photo by: Ashley Golledge/Journal-World File Photo

The emergency entrance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital is shown in this file photo from Jan. 26, 2018.

A deal has been finalized to keep the day-to-day operations of LMH Health’s emergency department under the control of its longtime local operator.

LMH Health announced Monday afternoon that it has finalized a three-year contract with Lawrence Emergency Medicine Associates to provide physicians and other medical providers to the community’s only full-service emergency department.

The deal marks the end of a negotiating period that at one point had LMH Health poised to sign a contract with a hedge fund-owned physician company. However, members of LMH’s medical staff, along with many members of the general public, objected to that deal, and the board of trustees for the nonprofit hospital reversed course and restarted negotiations with LEMA.

Financial terms of the new deal were not immediately available. However, the new deal will allow the existing staff of physicians and medical providers to continue providing care at the emergency department. LEMA employs the doctors and other advanced practitioners who staff the emergency department, while the hospital employs the nurses and other support staff.

In a separate deal, a group of hospitalists — doctors who don’t have outside practices but rather focus their care on inpatient visitors of the hospital — have reached an agreement to leave Lawrence Emergency Medicine Associates and become employees of LMH Health.

LEMA, founded by Lawrence physician Scott Robinson, has been providing emergency department services for about the last 25 years in Lawrence.