Without a partner, University Hospital’s viability is ‘questionable at best,’ consulting group concludes

University Hospital in Louisville needs a partner that will help it grow, a consulting firm informed a committee reviewing the facility’s operations Wednesday. “Even with operational and strategic improvements, the economic viability of University Hospital is questionable at best,” they said.

“While the organization is working very hard to make improvements … the gap between where you are as an organization and where you need to get to be a viable organization is very steep,” said consultant Craig Anderson Sr. of Dixon Hughes Goodman of Hudson, Ohio. “At the end of the day, any organization need an access to capital.”

Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal notes that the findings are in keeping with University Hospital’s search for a partner, which it has long been looking to find. Last year, Gov. Steve Beshear nixed plans for the publicly-owned hospital to join, among others, a Catholic-based organization that would have limited some procedures it could offer because of the organization’s religious tenets.

University Hospital has delayed its selection of a new partner until the end of June to give more time for negotiation.

“The two major conclusions are what the university would like to have heard: That partners and capital are needed,” said Dr. Peter Hasselbacher, a merger critic and former professor of medicine at U of L who attended the meeting. “We need to ask: How did we get here?” (Read more)