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U of L intends to buy Jewish Hospital and other other facilities for $10 million, with an additional $50 million loan from the Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet. As part of the plan, KentuckyOne parent company Catholic Health Initiatives would forgive about $19.7 million of what University Hospital owes it. U of L trustees approved the plan last week.
Catholic Health Initiatives announced it would sell Jewish and other major hospitals across Louisville in 2017, citing financial troubles. U of L had been trying to find a partner from the private sector to buy the facilities, but announced in June it had abandoned that plan.
Jewish Hospital has been essential to patients and university medical practitioners for decades. There were nearly 34,000 emergency room visits to the hospital and 57,242 outpatient visits in 2018. Closing Jewish would divert patients to nearby hospitals and could flood hospitals with more people to care for than they could handle.
Though the unprecedented plan could save the facility, we still do not know how U of L plans to turn around the hospital and whether lawmakers will approve the loan crucial to buying it.
This week on In Conversation, we talk about the new plan to buy Jewish Hospital, how the sale would affect Louisville and what officials involved in the process expect.
Listen to In Conversation live on 89.3 WFPL Friday at 11 a.m. or follow along with our live tweets at @WFPLnews. Call with your questions or comments at 502-814-TALK or tweet us with the hashtag #WFPLconversation. We’re also on Facebook.
