UK, Ashland hospital celebrate partnership that's been in effect since April 1; joint venture now holds hospital's assets

King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland has 465 beds. (2011 photo)

The University of Kentucky's health-care system and King’s Daughters Health System in Ashland are now partners, they announced Wednesday in Ashland, with Gov. Andy Beshear and his top health official on hand.

The partnership, which was announced as a "joint venture" in January, "went live April 1," UK HealthCare said in a press release. "Together we created a joint venture, which holds the assets, and we have a management agreement in place for UKHC to operate the KDHS health system," said Allison Perry, the university's deputy public-relations director.

Kristie Whitlatch, president and chief executive officer of King’s Daughters, said in January that her hospital would have a new governing body, with its current chairman but equal representation for UK, and that she would be on the management team at UK HealthCare. That is now in effect, Perry said.

The press release said the joint venture "creates new opportunities for both organizations to better serve patients throughout Kentucky, southern Ohio and West Virginia by expanding the delivery of specialty health care services throughout the region."

Secretary Eric Friedlander (Photo
by Matt Jones, Daily Independent)

The hospital already had a partnership with UK's Markey Cancer Center. After Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in nearby Russell closed in April 2020, Eric Friedlander, secretary of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told Beshear's senior adviser, Rocky Adkins, that there was an opportunity to create a partnership, Adkins recalled at Wednesday's announcement, Aaron Snyder reports for the Ashland Daily Independent: "Adkins pointed out Friedlander in the crowd, who gave him a rousing applause."

Whitlatch said Wednesday, “This partnership is an excellent example of how health care providers can successfully collaborate to share resources to facilitate patient care, physician recruitment and improve essential services. We are already seeing benefits of the collaboration as we are able to invest in our team members and our facilities.”

The UK release said, "The partnership will allow for expanded offerings in other needed health-care services for the area, including pediatric cardiology. Last week, the two organizations collaborated on their first pediatric echocardiogram read, and in the near future the Kentucky Children’s Hospital team will be providing onsite pediatric cardiology services at King’s Daughters."

King’s Daughters has 465 beds at its hospital in Ashland and 10 at King’s Daughters Medical Center Ohio, in Portsmouth. The system also includes a long-term care facility, seven urgent-care centers, and 30 primary-care and 36 specialty-physician practices.