Despite failed deal with U of L, Jewish Hospital won't close anytime soon, Bendapudi says

University of Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi stressed Thursday there is no imminent risk of Jewish Hospital closing, even though U of L has decided not to buy it. 

But the long-term future of the century-old hospital appears uncertain.

The university announced Wednesday evening that it was ending negotiations with KentuckyOne Health and its parent organization, CommonSpirit Health (formerly known as Catholic Health Initiatives), to potentially acquire Jewish and other local facilities.

At a press conference Thursday morning, Bendapudi said she knows this situation is nerve-wracking. "Uncertainty is always that way. Change is always that way," she said.

However, she emphasized there is no immediate plan to close Jewish Hospital or reduce the services the university provides there.

She pointed to the open-ended extension of the university's agreements with KentuckyOne — under which university-affiliated physicians provide a wide range of services at Jewish, in addition to U of L's medical residents being allowed to see patients and train there — as a positive sign that should give people some comfort.

She also noted that the university must receive at least 90 days' notice before its contracts with KentuckyOne can be terminated. 

Background:U of L ends talks to buy KentuckyOne assets, including Jewish Hospital

Bendapudi indicated that she can't predict what will happen to Jewish in the long term, although she understands KentuckyOne has been talking to other potential buyers.

"All I can reassure everybody is that nothing is happening tomorrow," she said.

Last year, local physicians and KentuckyOne staff members told the Courier Journal on the condition of anonymity that they feared Jewish could close if a deal to sell it isn’t reached. (The hospital has been up for sale for about two years.)

However, Jewish Hospital’s president, Ron Waldridge, said last fall there were no plans to shutter the hospital, which is a valuable asset to the community.

KentuckyOne spokeswoman Lannette VanderToll echoed that sentiment Thursday when she said there aren't any current plans to close Jewish or any other facilities. 

VanderToll also said KentuckyOne and its parent are continuing talks with two other interested organizations: BlueMountain Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund that has been in negotiations with KentuckyOne since December 2017, and another entity that wants to remain anonymous.

"We remain committed to finding a buyer for the entire portfolio, if possible, and we anticipate this process will take some additional time," she said. (She didn't provide a specific date by which KentuckyOne hopes to strike a deal.)

In the meantime, the university is working on contingency plans that would involve shifting the services U of L provides at Jewish over to other health care facilities. It began working on those plans last year for six clinical programs currently housed at Jewish: cardiology, cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, motility/gastroenterology, solid organ transplant, neurosurgery, and physical medicine and rehabilitation.

If Jewish (or another KentuckyOne operation) were to close or if a buyer that's acquiring the facility doesn't wish to continue certain arrangements with U of L, Bendapudi said the university would have to find a different partner and location where it could start providing those services instead.

"If they say that they are going to shut down a facility, then what we would do is we'd remove our programs," she said.

Previously:U of L could soon take control of Jewish Hospital, CEO email suggests

U of L is looking at the university's own health care facilities as well as outside entities as possibilities. In fact, Bendapudi said she had reached out Thursday morning to the CEOs of Norton Healthcare and Baptist Health.

As for the university's medical residents, for whom Jewish has provided a training ground for decades, Bendapudi said there is no risk to their accreditation or education. "From an education point of view, the students are protected," she said.

She also said the university is committed to keeping its transplant program alive.

Bendapudi said the university explored the option of acquiring Jewish and other KentuckyOne facilities because it saw it as a "moral obligation." 

She indicated the goal was to determine whether there was a way the university could help keep the lights on at Jewish, which has provided vital care to critically ill and uninsured patients for more than 100 years.

The university spent more than five months evaluating and negotiating a possible deal to buy Jewish and other KentuckyOne operations and devoted more than 100 people to that process, she said. U of L Hospital spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on that effort as well, which involved extensive due diligence research and as complex negotiations.

Read this:Jewish Hospital transplants hits milestone amid uncertainty

Ultimately, though, the institution couldn't find a suitable partner to finance the prospective deal. 

The university received offers from a few interested parties, she said, but the available terms (based on negotiations with all involved parties, including KentuckyOne) wouldn't have made acquiring Jewish and other facilities, such as the Frazier Rehab Institute and Our Lady of Peace Hospital, financially viable. The challenge wasn't only to finance those facilities' acquisition but also to come up with a sustainable plan to manage them.

"We know that our most important obligation is to the University of Louisville," Bendapudi said of the university's reasoning. "Looking at the numbers that we saw, we could not see how we would do it in a way that would not jeopardize the university."

Morgan Watkins: 502-582-4502; mwatkins@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @morganwatkins26. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/morganw.