U of L, Norton Healthcare Officials Call Meeting on Kosair Children's Hospital 'Constructive'

Norton Healthcare officials say a meeting with University of Louisville leaders this week was "constructive" and the two sides plan to meet again soon.

U of L criticized Norton for entering into a partnership with UK Healthcare for the use of Louisville’s Kosair Children’s Hospital, which Norton owns. The hospital sits on state-owned land and under state rules must benefit U of L and Kentucky citizens.U of L officials argue that Norton’s partnership with UK violates that agreement and they’ve been trying to negotiate their own long-term partnership with Norton for months.Norton filed a lawsuit this month attempting to block U of L from taking possible eviction action.  U of L officials say they never intended to evict Norton and that they've offered to take that issue off the table in order to continue partnership talks.Dr. David L. Dunn, UofL executive vice president for health affairs, released the following statement this week ahead of the meeting with Norton: “As a show of sincerity and of our good faith interest in continuing our affiliation with Norton, the University of Louisville has amended its agreement with KentuckyOne Health to eliminate a clause that Norton has found of grave concern. Under the deal we offered today, KentuckyOne Health no longer will have first right of refusal for any master affiliation agreements associated with Kosair Children’s Hospital.  Although Norton has unfoundedly thrown out the word “eviction” during this back-and-forth, our offer today unequivocally takes that issue off the table. Our interest is in returning everyone’s full focus on treating children. Our offer today shows without question that UofL has no intention of evicting Norton whatsoever, and that we simply want to get a master affiliation agreement in place and end this conflict.”Neither side would comment further for this story.A second meeting is scheduled for Friday.