As part of resetting its relationship with rural hospitals, UK will not build a new hospital at interstate junction in southeast Lexington

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The University of Kentucky will not build a hospital in southeast Lexington because it wants to do what its network of rural hospital partners want: focus on its mission as a top-level care facility for the sickest patients, a UK vice president told a legislative subcommittee Wednesday.

Mark D. Birdwhistell (UK photo)

The proposed Hamburg-area hospital "was perceived as us stepping outside of our swim lane" by the university's clinical affiliates out in the state, Senior Vice President for Health and Public Policy Mark Birdwhistell told the Budget Review Subcommittee on Health and Family Services.

"We heard loud and clear, 'We want UK HealthCare to focus on taking care of the sickest of the sick. We don't want UK out doing primary care and secondary care.' . . . That was very eye-opening."

Birdwhistell reiterated, "The message we received loud and clear from our clinical affiliates was, 'When our folks get that sick, we want them to come to UK. We want them on campus. We don't them in a community hospital.'"

UK was in the planning process for a new hospital at the southern junction of Interstates 75 and 64, and had bought the property and done some initial work. Baptist Health is in the process of opening a new hospital on an adjacent site.

Instead of a hospital, UK will build a clinic with specialty services like the one it has built in a former department store in the Turfland Center in southwest Lexington, but larger, Birdwhistell said after the meeting: "Turfland plus."

He told the legislative subcommittee that the university will also build other clinics to serve its employees in Lexington and the Bluegrass region, many of whom are "having to get health care outside the system. . . . We feel like that is our obligation."

Birdwhistell spoke to the subcommittee in a new role, which he said will include centralizing the university's "government-relations activities across campus," including "building a better partnership with the General Assembly. I felt I was uniquely positioned to do that."

 

Previously, Birdwhistell was UK HealthCare's vice president for health system administration and chief of staff. He was secretary of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services under Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher, and helped Republican Gov. Matt Bevin propose changes to the federal-state Medicaid program, which he had run before becoming cabinet secretary. He appeared with Angela Dearinger, executive vice dean of the UK College of Medicine, who was briefly health secretary at the end of Bevin's term.

The General Assembly is firmly controlled by Republicans. In the recent legislative session, Birdwhistell was the university's point man in changing legislation that helped Pikeville Medical Center and some other rural trauma hospitals but in its original form would have reduced some of the extra Medcaid payments that UK gets for being a "safety net" hospital.

That relates to UK's recent takeover of other hospitals in Ashland and Morehead, which Birdwhistell discussed at Wednesday's legislative subcommittee meeting. Speaking of UK's absorption of King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, he said "Where we failed . . . is when you put that UK brand in front of that name, that brings with it an expectation of service, not predator," which he said was the perception of some.

"And so, we're readjusting a lot of the narratives to say, 'When you have UK in front of your name, you go to a partner and say, 'What can we do to help you be successful?' It's not 'What do we do to crush you?' And this is community health care. This is not our forte, so we've learned that lesson. . . . We can grow the workforce for those providers and not have to do it ourselves."

Birdwhistell said UK can also serve as a backstop for its rural partners, noting that UK doctors rearranged their schedules one weekend to keep open the neonatal intensive-care unit at Pikeville, which would have had to close temporarily due to employee vacations. "That's what we do," he said. "That's where we excel and that's where we need to get back to."

UK's latest acquisition is St. Claire Medical Center in Morehead, where it has run a satellite medical-school program for several years. The College of Medicine also has satellites in Bowling Green and Northern Kentucky, and Dearinger said it has seven residency programs in Bowling Green, the state's third largest city, and is starting residency programs in Ashland and Pikeville.

"We are trying to grow the number of doctors to stay in our state," Dearinger said, calling UK's Rural Physician Leadership Program "one of our crown jewels." She said it has produced 120 doctors, most of whom are practicing in Kentucky, "the vast majority" in rural parts of the state. Later, she said 42 percent of all recent medical-school graduates from UK have stayed in Kentucky, far above the 24% of "a few years ago."

Two Democratic legislators from Louisville, Sen. Karen Berg and Rep. Lisa Willner, asked Dearinger if UK has had fewer applicants for medical school or residencies due to restrictions on medical education, by which they meant the recent state law that bans abortions except in cases of threat to the woman's life or permanent damage to a life-sustaining organ.

Dearinger said "To be honest, we have not seen a decrease." She said she has heard anecdotal reports of students or graduates interested in obstetrics and gynecology going elsewhere, but "We are still inundated with OB applicants to do a residency at the University of Kentucky."

Another Louisville Democrat, Rep. Sarah Stalker, noted a May 16 Kentucky Health News story, from Kentucky Public Radio, that said 15% fewer U.S. medical-school graduates applied to Kentucky residency programs in the 2023-24 academic year, and there was a 23% decline in those for obstetrics and gynecology, according to the Association of American Medical Schools., which blamed the decline on the state's near-total abortion ban.

Dearinger said UK is still getting hundreds of "very good applicants, and we don't have any problems filling our residency programs and fellowship programs with very high-quality young physicians. We are prioritizing as much as we can, Kentucky students, so that they will stay" in the state.

Roll call: Most members of the subcommittee did not attend the late-morning meeting. The chairman, Sen. Donald Douglas of Nicholasville, a physician, noted that at the start of the meeting and made an unusually pointed comment: "I expect my colleagues in the General Assembly to show up."

Bill to help Pikeville hospital turned into a law that will help other rural hospitals after UK saw it as a threat and rewrote the bill

State Sen. Phillip Wheeler discussed his SB 280
 on KET's "Kentucky Tonight." (Screenshot from KET)

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

State Sen. Phillip Wheeler of Pikeville says one of the most consequential pieces of legislation passed by state lawmakers this year is a bill he sponsored to funnel more money to rural hospitals in Kentucky. 

Senate Bill 280 allows certain rural hospitals that get at least 35% of their revenue from Medicaid to get the same enhanced Medicaid reimbursement rate as the University of Kentucky or the University of Louisville. 

The hospitals are defined as those that have a trauma center and offer clinical rotations for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who are in training.

"It kind of levels out that playing field," Wheeler told Kentucky Health News. "And it does this without placing any additional liability for matching funds on the General Fund by allowing local communities to assess a provider tax against the medical provider." Such taxes are applied to revenues of health-care facilities, typically to get more government matching money.

Asked if his bill will keep rural hospitals from closing, Wheeler said, "I wouldn't be so bold as to say that this is the only solution. I think you need to take a multifaceted approach and providing these hospitals with the ability to compete and the funding they need to develop this specialized care is one piece of the puzzle."

Wheeler, a Republican who represents Elliott, Johnson, Lawrence, Martin and Pike counties, said the higher reimbursements will allow rural hospitals to provide a higher level of care, especially when it comes to specialty services. And this, he said, will increase access to care for rural communities. 

"Not only does that make a huge difference to the patients being served, but it also will result in a much larger increase in investment in health care in those communities," he said. "And . . . especially in a lot of rural areas, including where I live in the 31st Senate District, health care has essentially become our largest industry. I mean, the largest employer in my district, by far, is Pikeville Medical Center with over 3,000 employees." 

Wheeler said he didn't think anyone would be harmed by this law, noting that he resolved concerns voiced by UK HealthCare, which has clinical rotations at King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, which it recently purchased.

Path to "good public policy" 

Mark Birdwhistell, UK HealthCare's vice president for health system administration and chief of staff, explained that UK and UofL receive enhanced Medicaid reimbursements because they are Level I trauma centers that agree to care for the "sickest of the sick" patients in the state and also house the state's primary educational programs for medicine and dentistry.

UK HealthCare VP Mark Birdwhistell

He said the impetus of SB 280 and its companion bill SB 281, which was not heard in committee, came about when UK bought King's Daughters, which allowed the Ashland hospital to get the higher Medicaid reimbursement. 

The original SB 280 would have given Level II trauma centers -- Pikeville has the only one in the state -- the same enhanced Medicaid rate as UK and UofL. SB 281 said UK and UofL could only take that enhanced Medicaid reimbursement in clinics or hospitals that operated in the county of the educational facility, limiting UK's enhancement to Lexington.

"Both of these had unintended consequences," Birdwhistell said, so UK could not support the bills in their original form. He said they would have left UK with lower Medicaid payments for services provided in any hospital that it has an agreement with to provide care, such as Hazard Appalachian Regional Healthcare. In addition, he said UK has practices in other counties, such as Bowling Green and Manchester, that get enhanced Medicaid payments.   

"That would have been devastating if that had come to fruition," said Birdwhistell, who was state health secretary in 2006-07. Later adding, "It would have significantly reduced funding and would have eventually compromised good patient care in the commonwealth."

That's because the state has to get ongoing approval from the federal government for the special Medicaid payment plans, one for public universities and another for private hospitals. And, he said, if these two pieces of legislation had passed in their original format, it would have triggered an amendment to the current plans, possibly putting them at risk. 

Driven by this concern, Birdwhistell said he suggested that the bill keep the existing enhanced Medicaid plans but have a different solution allowing a third way for hospitals to get the enhanced payments. 

"We moved it from a potential where we would not be able to get as much federal Medicaid money in the state to a new program that has the potential of pulling in additional reimbursement and an incentive to focus on access and improved outcomes, improved patient outcomes," he said. 

The revised bill that passed allows an opportunity for hospitals to get comparable reimbursement to what the universities get if they meet the criteria to do so, and Birdwhistell. And this, he said, accomplishes the goal of creating a more "level playing field."

Further, he said SB 280 allows the opportunity for additional Medicaid payments for care provided by other health-care workers, such as advance-practice registered nurses, dentists and social workers. It also says that pediatric teaching hospitals are able to get the additional Medicaid reimbursements for services to patients under 18. 

"So I think we ended up with good public policy that has the potential of improving access and  patient outcomes for the Medicaid population," Birdwhistell said.

He added later, "I think it is transformative because it has the potential of aligning people's incentives around an increased increased physician workforce, opening up additional access, appointment availability. And thirdly, aligning around access and quality." 

Birdwhistell said six or seven hospitals will likely qualify for the enhanced Medicaid payments in the first wave of hospitals. He said the goal is to get the plan submitted to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services by Aug. 1 and for payments to be approved by January 2025. 

A news release from the governor's office said it estimates that 43 Kentucky hospitals meet the requirements of the new plan, dubbed the Kentucky Medicaid Assistance Program. The plan is contingent upon approval from CMS. Wheeler said they have "very good indicators" that it will be approved. 

Why SB 280 is important

Donavan Blackburn, president and chief executive officer of Pikeville Medical Center, said he'd been working on this bill for the last year and a half "to address the inequality and disparity between us and urban hospitals," which have a greater share of patients with commercial insurance, which pays higher rates. 

He pointed out that his Level II trauma hospital accepts patients from 48 other hospitals in the region who need a higher level of care and that 77% of them are either on Medicaid or Medicare. He said Pikeville Medical Center "serves the sickest of the sick and the most financially challenged in the nation." 

And while he said his hospital could be likened to UK or UofL when it comes to the services it provides, it is not a state-owned hospital or a teaching hospital. The hospital has an agreement with the University of Pikeville and four nursing schools to provide clinical rotations. 

In particular, he said it's his mix of payers that makes SB 280 so important because this extra money will allow the high level of care provided by the hospital to continue. 

"And what that extra payment means is, is that programs like our children's hospital, like our trauma center, like our specialties and subspecialties, endocrinology, rheumatology, all those different specialties that we're able to offer here in our community can stay in our community," he said. "Which means that not only people have access to care, but it prevents a diagnosis that if it goes untreated, becomes advanced, which costs actually the state and federal government even more."

Further, he said it will allow the hospital to retain jobs in health care, which is the top economic driver in the region. 

Blackburn said the success of SB 280 will be evident if they are able to "keep those service lines open and to keep making investments and advancements and to be able to keep up with all the other markets. . . . It's about advancement and sustainability." 

15% fewer med-school grads applied for residencies in Kentucky this year; med-school association attributes that to abortion ban

Photo by Phallin Ooi, Creative Commons

By Sylvia Goodman
Kentucky Public Radio

The Association of American Medical Schools says 15 percent fewer U.S. medical-school graduates applied to Kentucky residency programs in the 2023-24 academic year, part of a trend related to states' strong anti-abortion laws enacted after the federal right to abortion was abolished. The decline was even greater in programs for obstetricians and gynecologists.
 
The study found that U.S. medical students were less likely to put in an application in states with abortion bans in place. The state's near-total abortion ban only allows exceptions if the mother is in imminent risk of death or permanent injury to a life-sustaining organ.

Dr. Atul Grover, executive director of the AAMS Research and Action Institute, found that 15% fewer U.S. medical students applied to residency programs in Kentucky during the last academic year compared to the 2022-23 school year. That’s 1,050 fewer applicants across specialties.

In OB-GYN programs, there was an even sharper 23% decline, Grover said. “We do see these trends across specialties, though,” he said. “People get a little jittery around the idea that the state government is going to come in and tell you what is not appropriate care for a patient when you know otherwise.”

Grover noted that medical students overall applied to fewer schools, meaning students got pickier in where they applied. That accounts for some of the decrease in applications across states, but the remaining deficit, he said, is cause for concern — particularly to states with abortion bans.

“Health-care shortages, across specialties, across a lot of states, are already being felt by patients,” Grover said. “If I think about Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, these are states that already have trouble attracting and recruiting, retaining physicians.”

Kentucky hospitals are already dealing with an “acute shortage” of health care workers, with nearly 13,000 job vacancies in hospitals at the end of 2022, says the Kentucky Hospital Association.

Grover said medical-residency application numbers are one of the fastest ways to measure where doctors are moving or interested in moving. Other metrics are harder and take longer to track. Residents have a tendency to stay in the state where they train.

Grover said lawmakers should understand the full implications of abortion bans, especially in a state that already suffers from several physician shortages, including in women and reproductive health fields. According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, more than half of Kentucky’s 120 counties didn’t have a single OB-GYN specialist in 2022-23.

Louisville pediatrician Dr. Michelle Elisburg said many doctors entering residency are in their mid-to-late 20s, and may be considering having children themselves. The bans may keep those women or their partners from considering moving to the state either.

“You wouldn't come if you're a young woman and know that if something happens to you, you might die because they aren't gonna let you get the health care you need,” Elisburg said. “That's where you are going to lose the doctors.”

Elisburg was part of the lobbying effort by Kentucky Physicians for Reproductive Freedom to end the state’s abortion bans this year.

She said the bans keep students from receiving all the training they need to provide abortion care or require them travel out of state to get it. “If there's such a ban, that restricts the kind of training that people are able to do,” she said. “They're not going to want to come to a state where they can't be completely trained in all the techniques in their field.”

Blair Wooten, who attended the University of Louisville medical school, said the state’s abortion ban was one of the reasons she decided to leave the state. She ended up going to a program in Ohio for the last year. She said abortion medical training “is paramount to me. It's something I want to be in my practice.”

Wooten is moving to a residency program in Indiana, which has its own abortion ban, but that program gives students the opportunity to receive abortion training in a Detroit-based program, which eased some of her fears — and clinics in Ohio are just a few hours drive away.

Wooten said she’s not sure if she’d consider setting up a practice in a state without abortion access. She said the inability to immediately provide the care she believes is necessary would be painful, but she also wants to provide services in health care deserts.

“Family planning is something I want to be a big part of my practice, so I usually say, ‘No’,” Wooten said. “But I'm also keenly aware that people need resources in every place, especially places that are maybe a little more hostile. And they need providers who care and can help them even with limited resources.”

UK colleges launch program to train more public-health nurses by getting nursing and public-health degrees in four and a half years

A University of Kentucky nursing class (UK photo)

By Jonathan Greene
University of Kentucky

One of the greatest challenges facing the state and the nation is the current and growing shortage of health professionals, particularly nurses.

A combined program from the University of Kentucky College of Public Health and the UK College of Nursing offers students a new pathway to make a difference in communities.

Through the Public Health Nursing Scholars program, students will earn two degrees – Bachelor of Public Health (BPH) and Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) – in just four and a half years.

“Having these two programs together shows how important it is to try to fix health issues on the front side as much as possible before people end up in the hospital. We need to intervene much sooner and try to make our communities healthier,” said Andrea Flinchum, manager of the Healthcare-Associated Infection/Antibiotic Resistance Prevention Program at the state Department for Public Health. “I love that I can impact a large group or a population with my knowledge and skills. This program is taking nursing to a larger scale, rather than one or two patients. Nurses play a key role in public health.”

Public-health nurses play key roles in preventing disease while promoting public safety and well-being. Public-health nurses promote better health and safety in communities and help prepare them for and recover from public health incidents, such as natural disasters and disease outbreaks.

“Public health is faced with existing and emerging complex health challenges: chronic conditions, infectious diseases and pandemics, traumatic injuries, and environmental hazards," said Heather Bush, dean of the College of Public Health.

“Effective solutions require bringing people, skills and expertise together. The Public Health Nursing Scholars Program is such a partnership,” Bush said. “Training at the intersection of our two colleges equips graduates to tackle emerging health needs on two fronts: delivering high-quality care to individuals while addressing upstream factors impacting health outcomes to ultimately build a more resilient health-care system.”

Rosalie Mainous, dean of the College of Nursing, said “Public health is the cornerstone of the work of the baccalaureate-prepared registered nurse. A partnership with the College of Public Health will now prepare practitioners that are uniquely qualified to blend the practice degree with one that is steeped in the evidence in genetics, the environment, and health policy to support healthy outcomes.”

A variety of agencies and industries are looking to hire people with a public-health nursing background.

Government and other public agencies hire public-health nurses, and job opportunities are available with agencies and organizations that serve the health needs of a community. Public-health nurses might work for a school system to educate students and their parents about hygiene and nutrition or work for a community clinic caring for individuals and promoting disease prevention.

Public-health nurses also work with nonprofit organizations like the Red Cross or smaller grassroots groups concerned about health, social justice, and education.

The Kentucky Nurses Association predicted a potential need for 20,000 nurses in the state by 2025. Across the country, the need for nurses is only continuing to grow with more than 300,000 additional nursing jobs expected by 2032. The median salary for nurses is $37.28 per hour or $77,500 per year.

University of Kentucky will buy St. Claire Hospital in Morehead

University of Kentucky trustees Friday approved buying St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead. (UK photo)

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees voted Friday to approve plans to acquire St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead. The targeted date for UK's takeover is July 1. 

The move will expand clinical and academic programs and provide more access to high-quality patient care for more Kentuckians, UK said in a news release.  

“UK is committed to growing clinical services in the Morehead area as well as expanding programs in many clinical areas to grow the future health care workforce for Kentucky,” President Eli Capilouto said in the release.  

St. Claire is one of the largest employers in the Morehead region, with more than 1,300 employees, including over 50 physicians and nearly 50 advanced-practice professionals in more than 20 medical specialties.

St. Claire has partnered with UK on a number of academic and clinical programs since the 1960s, co-developing the Rural Physician Leadership Program along with Morehead State University and establishing a training and residency site for UK's colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health Sciences. It is also home to the College of Health Sciences's Physician Assistant Program.

St. Claire President and CEO Donald H. Lloyd II, who will remain in that position, said in the release that "UK identified as the natural partner that could carry forward the previous work and ongoing investment while growing the health-care workforce."

He added, “In an ever-changing health care landscape, both St. Claire and UK are deeply committed to accessible and high-quality patient care and strategic collaborations that will enhance services to benefit Kentuckians throughout northeastern Kentucky for many decades to come.”

According to the release, St. Claire HealthCare includes a hospital with 139 licensed beds and seven primary-care clinics in five counties, a multi-specialty medical pavilion, two urgent-care centers, a pediatrics clinic, a retail pharmacy, a counseling center, an outpatient center and a medical equipment and supply store. St. Claire also provides home health and hospice services in eight counties.

This is UK's second major foray into hospital care in northeastern Kentucky in recent years. In 2021, the university created a joint venture with King's Daughters Memorial Hospital in Ashland in which UK holds the assets and manages the hospital system.

As doctors plead for end to state abortion ban, legislators file bills to protect in vitro fertilization from court rulings like Alabama's

Dr. Virginia Stokes, an obstetrician-gynecologist, said she’s treated many conditions that required abortion to prevent sepsis and preserve patients’ fertility. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

By Sarah Ladd

Kentucky Lantern

In response to a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court stating that frozen embryos are children, Kentucky state senators from both parties have filed bills aimed at protecting access to in vitro fertilization in Kentucky.

Meanwhile, nearly 300 Kentucky health-care providers and medical students signed a letter asking legislators to restore access to abortion in the state, saying its ban on abortion handicaps their ability to provide comprehensive care.

Republican Sen. Whitney Westerfield of Christian County, a staunch opponent of abortion, filed a bill Wednesday saying that any facility or “procedure related to in vitro fertilization shall not be liable” for damages “to a patient or patient’s surviving spouse or partner resulting from the loss of a human embryo, except in cases of negligence or wanton, willful, malicious or intentional misconduct.”

It also protects health care providers “performing any procedure” related to IVF from criminal charges. The day before, Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, a Louisville Democrat, filed a similar bill. The Alabama Legislature passed similar legislation Thursday.

Alabama, Kentucky and at least eight other states have laws saying human life begins at conception, with the fertilization of an egg by a sperm cell; Kentucky's law speaks of the "unborn human being."

IVF is used to treat infertility, and can help other people trying to get pregnant to do so, according to the Mayo Clinic. About 2 percent of U.S. births are results of the procedure. It sometimes involves freezing embryos for future attempts at insemination; damage to frozen embryos at a fertility clinic prompted the lawsuit that led to the Alabana ruling.

Westerfield’s filing comes as he and his wife are expecting triplets, which he announced in January. He said at that time in a Senate floor speech that they adopted and transferred embryos for the pregnancy. His 6-year-old son is an “embryo adoption” baby, he said.

At a Thursday news conference, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said the Alabama ruling “is what happens . . . when you embrace extremism.”

He cited Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban as another example: “Women that have non-viable pregnancies still have to oftentimes carry that pregnancy to term knowing they’re going to hear their child die moments afterwards if it hasn’t already happened.”  

Kentucky bans abortion except in cases of threat to the woman's life or of serious, permanent damage to a life-sustaining organ, under a law triggered by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that created a constitutional right to abortion. 

The ban causes “devastating consequences” for patients, Louisville’s Dr. Marjorie Fitzgerald said at the health-care providers' event. “We are losing obstetricians who will not practice in our state,” a nd because of the restrictions, “Doctors are violating their Hippocratic oath to do no harm.”

Fitzgerald was joined in the Capitol Annex by Democratic lawmakers, other medical providers and a second-year medical student in Frankfort to discuss the letter written by the Kentucky Physicians for Reproductive Freedom and signed by 280 providers.

They detailed the complex nature of medical decisions that lead to abortions and slammed lawmakers for restricting their ability to provide that care.

Dr. Nancy Newman, a board-certified obstetrician, said she would not now come to the state because of a “culture of fear that our legislature has created” in which providers have to decide between jail time and what their patients need. “How do you practice medicine in a culture of fear? I don’t think you can.”

Dr. Michelle Elisburg, a Louisville pediatrician, told the story of a 14-year-old patient who was raped by a 60-year-old landlord and got pregnant.

“She had the baby and then dropped out of high school to get a job” to support herself and her child, Elisburg said. “Now both mother and child have multiple risk factors for poor health, educational and vocational outcomes, requiring more financial assistance from the state.”

Elisburg said that as a Jewish physician, she’s governed not only by the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, but also a faith-based oath to act in the best interest of her patients: “As a physician in Kentucky, I am now being forced to make impossible choices that put my professional ethics and my faith in direct conflict with the law.”

Urooj Nasim, who attends the University of Louisville medical school and said she spoke only for herself, said abortion bans may keep her and her classmates from getting the hands-on training they need to become obstetrician-gyneciogists and tackle Kentucky’s high rates of maternal mortality.

“In order to make the best calls for the patients of my future, I need to receive high quality training and all of the tools and procedures available,” Nasim said. “And in a state where physicians live in fear of being prosecuted for delivering standard care, that is just not possible.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says “In states with abortion bans, medical students and residents are not able to receive the hands-on training they need in order to provide patients with comprehensive care.”

Nasim, who was born in St. Louis and lived in Somerset until she was 8, told the Lantern she is “undecided” on her specialty path but was “moved by that patient population” when she worked with an obstetrician previously.

“I’m a very … mission-driven medical student,” she said. “I really want to help patients with a lot of the social factors that affect their health. And OB is a really great specialty to do that in.”

Latest in a line of protests

The Thursday letter is the latest in a long line of efforts to protest Kentucky’s tight abortion bans.

In 2022, Kentucky voters defeated a constitutional amendment that would have keptt courts from finding a right to an abortion in the state constitution.

In late 2023, a Kentucky woman sued for the right to access abortion and end an unwanted pregnancy, but dropped the lawsuit when the fetus lost cardiac activity.

Republicans and Democrats have filed bills seeking to loosen or undo Kentucky’s abortion bans, to no avail.

Several anti-abortion lawmakers have focused their efforts during the 2024 session on making Kentucky a safer place to give birth and codifying support for expectant parents.

This week state Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville, filed a bill seeking rape and incest exceptions to Kentucky’s abortion bans — but only in the fist six weeks of pregnancy

Newman, an obstetrician, said “Most women don’t even know that they’re pregnant by six weeks,”  an in case of assault, “The victim likely may not even tell anyone before six weeks.”

Dr. Virginia Stokes, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, said she’s treated many conditions in her tenure as a physician that required abortion — placenta previa, first and second trimester ectopic pregnancies, preterm rupture of membranes, cancer, sepsis and more.

A lack of early interventions, she said, can cause “total body sepsis and death due to the sepsis. And if death is avoided, there is a frequent loss of fertility due to disruption of the uterus.”

“The fetus will not survive if the mother doesn’t survive,” Stokes said.

In such cases she’s treated, she said, these are “gut wrenching decisions with no choice to be made” involving “very much wanted and cherished pregnancies.”

“There are lots of really bad things that can happen between six and 12 weeks,” Stokes added. “and we need to have permission to take care of those patients.”

“I am pro-life,” Stokes said. “I am for saving the life of these women who have these early pregnancy complications that require, unfortunately, a cessation of the pregnancy …. As an OB-GYN, my first priority is the life of my female patient. Please don’t tie my hands.”

CHI St. Joseph Health to be new satellite site of nursing school

In the foreground of the CHI St. Joseph Health campus in Lexington is the office park where the Lincoln Memorial University nursing-education program is set to begin this fall. St. Joseph Hospital is in the right background. Far beyond it is the University of Kentucky hospital. (Photo by Mark Mahan)

By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern

Lincoln Memorial University of Harrogate, Tenn., near Kentucky's southeastern corner, will launch a nursing-education site with CHI Saint Joseph Health in Lexington later in 2024, the private school said Wednesday.

Students will be able to enroll for the fall 2024 semester at the new Caylor School of Nursing campus, LMU said in a statement.

The school, including classrooms, simulation rooms and laboratories, will go into a renovated office space in the Saint Joseph Office Park across Harrodsburg Road from the hospital, according to the university. Students will get their clinical experience through CHI Saint Joseph and other partners.

“Recognizing the severe shortage of nurses that continues to plague Kentucky, we were pleased to work with Lincoln Memorial University to bring more nursing education opportunities to Central Kentucky,” CHI executive Anthony A. Houston said in a statement. (CHI stands for Catholic Health Initiatives.)

Kentucky has an “acute shortage” of healthcare workers, Kentucky Health News reported in November. The state’s well-documented nursing shortage was only exacerbated by Covid-19 burnout and an aging worker population, the Lantern has reported. Additionally, shutdowns and restrictions stunted the normal education trajectory for Kentucky’s next generation of nurses during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, multiple initiatives hope to fix the issue.

Students pursuing an bachelor of science in nursing degree from Lincoln Memorial can get it in an accelerated 16-month path. Otherwise, the program is 122 credit hours.

LMU's nursing school already has a site in Corbin, 50 miles from Harorgate. For information, email Ethan Fultz, coordinator of the Lexington site and nursing recruitment, at Ethan.Fultz@LMUnet.edu.

UK's largest academic building will be the Michael D. Rankin M.D. Health Education Building, named for an alumnus from Danville

A rendering of the building, to be built on University Drive between the main library and Cooper Drive

By Kristi Willett
University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved Tuesday the naming of the university's new building for health education as the Michael D. Rankin M.D. Health Education Building.

As an alumnus, Rankin has devoted himself to the UK College of Medicine, its success and the success of its students. He has been an invaluable member of the UK Medical Alumni Association, its past president, chair of the Dean's Advisory Council and volunteer faculty in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. In addition, he has served many years on the College of Medicine scholarship and admissions committees.

The Board of Trustees previously accepted a gift commitment of $22 million from Rankin for scholarships in the college and to support the construction of the building — which, when completed, will be the largest academic building in the history of UK.

“Dr. Rankin has left an indelible mark of healing and hope, not just on this university, but on the state of Kentucky,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “His influence will be felt by generations of students and the patients they later serve.”

At over 500,000 square feet, the new Health Education Building will house programs in the colleges of Medicine, Public Health, Health Sciences and Nursing as well as the Center for Interprofessional and Community Health Education. The new facility will become a prominent campus landmark at the intersection of Huguelet and University drives when it opens in 2026.

Rankin when his gift was revealed in 2021 (UK photo)

Rankin, of Danville, received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UK in 1971 and his medical degree from the College of Medicine in 1980. He completed his residency in family medicine in 1983 at UK HealthCare and pursued a successful practice in primary care and family medicine in Atlanta before retiring and returning to Boyle County on a farm 10 miles from where he grew up.

“One of the greatest challenges facing the commonwealth is the current and growing shortage of health care providers, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists, athletic trainers, medical laboratory scientists, speech language pathologists, audiologists, public health officials and other health care professionals,” Capilouto said. “With this new facility, we will be addressing this health care workforce shortage head-on and, but it couldn’t be done without our partners like Dr. Michael Rankin, who share with us a vision for a healthier Kentucky.”

UK students planning medical careers start student organization to steer rural students into college and health-care opportunities

Jackson Miller, left, and Ethan Morgan started HealthCare Cats to help other students from rural areas navigate the many health-care education opportunities at the University of Kentucky. (UK photo)

By Adrienne Clarke
University of Kentucky

Jackson Miller and Ethan Morgan, former Marshall County High School classmates and now best friends and roommates at the University of Kentucky Lewis Honors College, first arrived in Lexington feeling a bit overwhelmed of all the opportunities available to them UK.

Coming from a rural area where most high-school graduates enter the workforce or the military rather than college, Miller and Morgan felt they did not have a clear roadmap of how to pursue their career aspirations of becoming physicians. To help other students not feel so lost in navigating all of the health care education opportunities, Miller and Morgan created a student organization during their sophomore year to help other students like them. The organization, HealthCare Cats, is now “providing an avenue into college and health care opportunities for rural students of Kentucky in order to create a better commonwealth.”

To start their program, Miller, a psychology major, and Morgan, a biology major, worked with several UK colleges focused on the health-care industry including the College of Medicine, College of Dentistry, College of Pharmacy and College of Nursing, for information about how to present themselves as the best candidate for those types of degrees. The students then developed a presentation that has been shared with rural high-school and college students to encourage them to aspire to a career in health care and show them the different options and opportunities that are offered at UK.

“We wanted to help students who felt behind, didn’t have the greatest study habits and most certainly weren’t aware of many of the opportunities in health care,” Miller said. 

The organization, which already boasts over 160 students, will include guest speakers, networking opportunities and a mentoring program to connect first-year students with more experienced students.

“These opportunities for the members of the organization will allow us to not only reach the younger, rural generation, but also cultivate a community of future rural health leaders within the organization,” Morgan said.

Already, the organization has had speakers such as Dean Christian Brady from the Lewis Honors College, who spoke to the organization on discovering your “why” for health care and education, combating burnout, handling changes in the path of life, managing adversity in life, and more. The organization also held a graduate student panel with students from nursing, medicine, physical therapy, the physician assistant program, dentistry and pharmacy. The students shared application tips, pros and cons of their programs, and advice they would consider if they had to do it all over again.

This Friday, Dec. 1, HealthCare Cats, in partnership with the Appalachian Health Initiative, will welcome Dr. Michael D. Rankin to speak at 5 p.m. in the Lewis Honors College Scholars Lounge. Rankin, a graduate of UK, recently pledged $22 million to “advance the mission of the UK College of Medicine and expand the top-notch educational opportunities through the support of a new health education building and the funding of medical student scholarships,” as stated in the UKMedicine magazine.

Rankin had quite a non-traditional path to medicine, as he graduated from his undergraduate studies and spent six years in the electrical engineering field to accumulate enough funds to attend medical school. This was a common occurrence in Rankin’s life, as he explains how before attending UK for his undergraduate career, his family resorted to selling a cow to afford the tuition. Rankin has provided unconditional support for those with similar backgrounds to himself attempting to enter the medical field, as he understands the struggles of attending college from a rural environment.

“Dr. Rankin coming to speak with us will be great, for he will understand the backgrounds of our membership and be able to offer advice from the perspective of someone who has walked their paths,” Morgan said.

“Having worked with students Maddie Duff (president) and Ben Vickery in the past, it is clear that the missions of our organizations align in critical ways. Dr. Rankin speaks very highly of Appalachian students and often notes the need for them in Kentucky’s health care system. We are so excited to be able to bring in their diverse perspectives and work together to build a better commonwealth.”

Supplementing the event programming, HealthCare Cats initiated a mentorship program where rural first-year students are matched with an upper-class student to make the college/pre-health transition smoother. The first director of HealthCare Cats’ the program, Maya Moskal, is from Chicago and is considering a career in a rural market.

"Being from a bigger city, HealthCare Cats has broadened my knowledge on the health care disparities present in rural areas,” she said. “The program has opened many doors by encouraging me to give back to Kentucky, in addition to helping me personally succeed at UK in many ways.”

Through HealthCare Cats, Miller and Morgan hope to apply the common chemistry phrase “like dissolves like” by helping rural students achieve their medical aspirations — and then return to their hometowns.

Morgan asked, “Who better to serve rural populations in Kentucky than those who resided there for much of their lives?”

UK's latest federal grant to increase number of primary-care doctors in rural Kentucky includes new scholarship opportunities

Medical students Katelin Maggard and Anna Cox on the College of Medicine-Bowling Green Campus, a partnership of UK, Western Kentucky University and Med Center Health. (Photo by Clinton Lewis)

By Allison Perry

University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky College of Medicine has received a four-year, nearly $16 million grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. UK will get $3.97 million a year over the next four years to support efforts to increase the number and diversity of primary-care physicians in Kentucky, with the ultimate goal of improving health-care access in underserved areas of the state.

The physician shortage is not unique to Kentucky, nor is it limited to primary care. A2021 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges estimated that national demand for all physicians will exceed the existing supply by 37,800 to as many as 124,000 by the year 2034.

In Kentucky, 61% of the greatest physician needs are in rural areas. In rural and under-served areas, primary-care physicians are often the residents’ only exposure to any health-care professional, highlighting the need to improve access to these physicians.

UK's Rural Physician Leadership Program trains students

at Morehead who are interested in practicing rural medicine.

(UK photo by Jorge Castorena)

The UK College of Medicine has worked with academic and clinical partners to meet this growing need through four regional campuses in Lexington, Morehead, Bowling Green and Northern Kentucky, and graduated the largest-ever class this past spring.

These partnerships were a key to getting the new grant, which will focus on expanding pathways to support students who are interested in medical school and providing scholarship opportunities for medical students who choose primary care as a career path.

The goal is not just to increase the number of primary care physicians in the state, but to encourage new physicians to practice in underserved communities upon graduation, said Charles “Chipper” Griffith III, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine.

“As a physician who has provided primary-care services for patients of all ages, I can tell you firsthand how important it is for people to have access to these providers,” Griffith said. “An established relationship with a primary care physician is a first line of defense against acute and chronic illness and injuries. We not only provide treatment for illness, but we actively work to help our patients prevent it by identifying risk factors and screening for disease. In a state that suffers from high rates for many chronic, preventable diseases, increasing access to primary care is a critical step in improving the health of our citizens.”

Path to primary care can start in middle school 

UK already had several programs to provide educational experiences as students navigate the pre-med journey. With help from the new grant, these programs will place a greater focus on primary care, which includes family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, or the combination of internal medicine/pediatrics commonly known as Med/Peds.

The pathway to a medical career begins years before students reach college. Educational opportunities need to begin early — ideally, by the eighth grade, says James Ballard, director of UK's Center for Interprofessional and Community Health Education.

Promising students are identified with teh help of UK’s Area Health Education Center program, a collaborative effort between UK, the University of Louisville Health Science Centers, and eight regional centers. They provide support to help students meet their goals, including assistance in planning which classes to take in high school, help with applying for college, and encouragement from health-care role models.

At the high-school level, AHEC offers two free residential summer camps at UK that will be revised and funded through the new grant. The Summer Enrichment Program, for rising high school juniors, is a residential camp that allows students to gain some early college experience by spending three weeks learning, observing, and working hands-on with UK faculty, health professionals and health professions students. The program will add more mentoring specifically from primary-care physicians to provide more specific education on what a primary-care physician can do for patients, and understand how primary-care physicians function in a collaborative system.

The Health Researchers Youth Academy takes a similar approach, but is more tailored to the research side of a medical career. The residential programs connect high-school students with researchers, teach them research methods, and give them experience working in a laboratory. At the end of the camp, students will present their findings through poster presentations. In terms of primary care, the camp will educate students more on a primary care physician’s role in translational research — in other words, how basic science at the bench ultimately becomes a part of everyday patient care.

Though the Center for Intreprofessional and Community Health Education aims to create more health professionals across all spectrums, it will extol the benefits of choosing primary care, Ballard said.

“We’ve always exposed students to a variety of professions in the past, but we want to get more specific when it comes to primary care. We want them to understand ‘This is what a primary care physician does, this is why it’s important, this is why it’s valuable to you’,” Ballard said. “It’s amazing what primary care physicians can do, especially in rural and underserved areas. We want to show them what a difference they can make in their community by choosing this as a career.”

New initiatives funded by this grant will include two post-baccalaureate programs for students who have graduated from college, to provide opportunities for students to complete prerequisites for medical school and/or receive additional support and training to improve their chances of being accepted into medical school; a pre-matriculation program to prepare incoming medical students for the rigors of the curriculum and to highlight the benefits of choosing primary care as a career path; and a primary-care scholarly concentration, which will include targeted coursework and an enhanced community clinical rotation at a rural teaching health center.

Reducing debt for future primary care physicians

Research shows that students with large college debt are less likely to choose primary-care specialties because they have lower compensation in comparison to specialty and sub-specialty practices. Also, these graduates are less likely to practice in underserved communities.

The new grant will also allow the College of Medicine to provide up to $2.88 million a year in scholarships to students with demonstrated interest in primary care.

The new scholarships are positioned to decrease the debt burden by half for 80 students, and by a quarter for an additional 32 students. By reducing this burden, the team anticipates that more students will be likely to follow their passion for rural medicine and making a difference in underserved communities.

“Investing in the education of medical students through scholarships is not just an act of philanthropy, it’s an investment in the future of health care in Kentucky,” said Dr. Stephanie White, senior associate dean in the College of Medicine. “This award will be life-changing for our students who wish to pursue a career in primary care and have the desire to make a difference in underserved communities. These scholarships won’t just alleviate financial burden — they will empower dreams and nurture the talents of our next generation of primary-care physicians.”

U of L gets grant to expand doctor training for under-served areas

The U of L medical school is the state's oldest. (WDRB image)

The University of Louisville has received a $16 million federal grant help train more primary-care physicians in rural and urban areas that need more doctors who focus on family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine.

The goal of the four-year grant is to encourage young doctors with those specialties to consider practicing in under-served communities, which most Kentucky communities are.

"We know that students who train in these rural locations are more likely to practice there, and our hope is that by strengthening these programs, we'll be able to immerse students in these communities and increase the number of primary care physicians in underserved regions across the commonwealth," Kelli Bullard Dunn, vice dean of community engagement and diversity for the U of L School of Medicine, said at Monday's announcement.

"We have such a need in Kentucky and all over," said Faye Jones, associate vice president for health affairs and diversity initiatives at the UofL Health Sciences Center.

Most of the state's 120 counties, and at least some portion of 113 of them, including parts of Jefferson County, are designated by the federal government as as Health Professional Shortage Areas. "Recent projections rank Kentucky lowest among the states in meeting the need for primary care physicians by 2025," Darby Beane reports for WDRB.

The grant will expand U of L's path for students to help under-served areas. The medical school will create a new program to train medical students in west Louisville and other urban communities.

The progran will be modeled on the school's Trover Rural Track, which offers primary-care clinical training in conjunction with its family-medicine residency programs in Glasgow and Owensboro. Students in the program complete their final two years of medical school at the Trover Campus in Madisonville, part of Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville.

"According to the school, of the 170 physicians who have graduated from the Trover Rural Track so far, 75% practice primary care and 43% practice in rural communities," WDRB reports.

"The project also plans to enhance a university program that prepares individuals with a bachelor's degree in a different field to enter medical school. In addition, the grant will also help provide scholarships to support students in these programs."

The grant comes from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

New UK medical-school graduate plans to pay it forward with a career in rural Kentucky, which needs many more physicians

Dr. Shelley Stiltner (UK photo)

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

The University of Kentucky's Rural Physician Leadership Program is designed to increase the number of doctors in rural Kentucky, with graduates like Pike County native Shelley Stiltner.

After earning a UK undergraduate degree in nutrition, Stiltner graduated from the College of Medicine May 13. She is a first-generation college student who attended UK on a full scholarship, which she said she considered not only an investment, but also a thank-you to all of the people who helped her on her way, according to UK Medicine magazine.

Stiltner said she plans to embark on a career in rural medicine, not only to care for patients in need but to help inspire the next generation of rural physicians. 

She added that she worried when she started college and at times, even now, that the stereotype that is often applied to Eastern Kentuckians will overshadow who she is. 

"I spent so much time worrying that being from Eastern Kentucky would be my weakness, but it was my strength all along," she said.

Stiltner said she chose UK for medical school because of its "unwavering dedication to rural medicine" and called her decision to join the Rural Physician Leadership Program "one of the most rewarding decisions of my lifetime." 

" I have gained unmatched experience in rural health care and feel confident in my ability to take what I have learned and truly make a difference in a rural community," she said. "UK saw a grave health care need in rural Kentucky, which I call home, and developed a program to bridge the gap. For that, I am grateful." 

The need for more rural physicians is real and UK's RPLP program appears to be working. 

According to the federal Healthcare Provider Shortage Area tool, every rural county in Kentucky has a shortage of primary health-care providers.

And, according to a January 2020 report on the primary-care workforce shortage compiled by multiple authors at UK, "Kentucky produces and retains only about 55 new PC [primary-care] physicians per year, recruiting 55 to 60 more from out of state. This total of 110-115 new physicians falls short of the 124 PC physicians that must be added annually to avoid worsening our shortage, and far below the 246 PC physicians that Kentucky would need to add each year to reach the U.S. median in the coming decade."

The RPLP program began in 2009 and with this year's class, it has graduated 110 physicians who are well-versed in rural medicine, with their top three residency choices being areas of primary care, Allison Perry of UKnow reported in April. Two of every three RPLP alums are practicing in the state, and 92% of the participants from Kentucky now practice in rural Kentucky.

One is Stiltner. Asked what comes next, she listed several goals such as focusing on women's health, getting involved in providing medication-assisted treatment to women with substance-use disorders during pregnancy, and making an investment in the next generation of rural physicians by serving as a mentor. 

"There is no way I’d be where I am today without the help of mentors along the way," she said. "A promise I made to each of them was that I would pay it forward, and that is a promise I plan to keep. If I can inspire at least one budding rural physician that they have what it takes to make it in medicine, I will consider my career a success."

Stiltner advised future first-generation college students to "proudly be the first" in their family though it will be scary and come with a lot of uncertainty. She encouraged the students to find others who have been first-generation students and to lean on each other in that shared experience. 

"When things get hard, and you feel like giving up," she said, "remind yourself who or what your purpose is in chasing this dream."

Anthem expands its rural health scholarship program at EKU

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Kentucky Medicaid unit is expanding its rural scholarship program at Eastern Kentucky University "to grow the number of frontline workers in the eastern region of the state and increase access to care and improve health equity for those living in Kentucky’s rural areas," the company and the university said in a press release.

The fund of nearly $200,000 "will enable more students to provide care in underserved communities," the release said. "Anthem Medicaid launched the scholarship in August 2021, granting eight students the opportunity to pursue health education and eventually serve in Eastern Kentucky." This year’s scholarship recipients are Breanna Goble, a Johnson County native, and Sara Cornelison, a Madison County native.

In the Kentucky Hospital Association’s 2022 Workforce Survey Report, Kentucky hospitals reported more than 13,000 vacancies across 13 professional groups last year. "Nursing topped the list with 22% of all nursing positions unfilled, and another 14% of nurses near retirement," the release noted. 

University of Pikeville names Dr. Pamela Sparks-Stein as the first dean of its dental school, the third in Kentucky

Pamela Sparks-Stein

The University of Pikeville has named Pamela Sparks-Stein as the first dean of its College of Dental Health, Kentucky's new dental school.

"Among several strong candidates, Dr. Sparks-Stein stood out for her incredible alignment to the mission of the University of Pikeville,”  UPike President Burton Webb said in a news release. “Her compassion and empathy will help her create the kind of dental school where care for the underserved is central to our identity, where the health of the public is paramount, and where quality care is an absolute necessity.”

Sparks-Stein comes to UPike from the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry, where she serves as division chief of dental public health. Prior to her roles in education, she was in private practice in Kentucky for 13 years. 

“I am a public-health dentist and my heart has a passion for helping vulnerable and underserved populations,” Sparks-Stein said in the release. “My years of working with grants and projects in Eastern Kentucky have shown me there are so many wonderful partners who are willing to help, making it a great place to forge partnerships that will allow us to make a true impact in central Appalachia.”

Sparks-Stein received her dental degree and and master’s of public health degree from UK.

The UPike College of Dental Health is the third dental school in Kentucky and was made possible from a $25 million gift from an anonymous donor's family foundation. The other two dental colleges are at UK and the University of Louisville. 

University of Pikeville says it will build Kentucky's third dental school with a $25 million gift from an anonymous donor

University of Pikeville website logo

The University of Pikeville plans to create Kentucky's third dental school with a $25 million gift from an anonymous donor's family foundation, the largest in the school's 133-year history.

UPike President Burton Webb announced the gift last Saturday during the private university's health-professions commencement.

“The foresight of a generous family giving to a university to establish a dental school is special,” Webb said. “This is another example of challenges being met and solved right here by those who call this area home. It’s also incredible that the university, this family and now a dental school will each have their roots right here in these mountains. It’s a great day to be a Bear!” The university's mascot is a bear.

Webb told the Appalachian News-Express of Pikeville that the proposed school would go through an accreditation process, similar to that for its Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine and Kentucky College of Optometry, which will determine the project's timeline and size.

“Sometime before we started the optometry college, the university had done a feasibility study on the need for more dentists in Appalachia,” Webb told the newspaper. “At the behest of the family foundation we refreshed that study and it showed continued need. The gift is generous and we are deeply grateful.”

Kentucky's dental colleges are at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. Pikeville is the seat of Pike County, Kentucky's easternmost, and is nearer to Charleston, W.Va. That state has one dental school, at West Virginia University in Morgantown, and Virginia has one, at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., just south of Cumberland Gap and Kentucky's southeast corner, is scheduled to open a dental school this fall.

Terry Dotson, chair of UPike's Board of Trustees, said in a news release, “The founding of a dental program in these mountains will lead to better healthcare outcomes for a historically medically underserved population. This institution, its students, faculty and staff are a driving force for health education in the commonwealth. The dental school will complete the circle of medical services for the region and the immediate area. The economic impact with the addition of more professional students will grow businesses throughout the entire community and the region. This will be a project that will take the time and talents of many partners locally and statewide.”

Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations David Hutchens said the anonymous donor “has a deep love for Appalachia and a passion for improving healthcare in our region. Their generosity will reverberate for generations, impacting not only the graduates of the program but also profoundly benefitting the lives of the countless patients they will serve for generations to come. This is a transformative gift, an act of deep love and devotion for this region. We are humbled by this generosity, thrilled to have this opportunity and ecstatic about this vision.”

Albert B. Chandler Hospital at UK opened 60 years ago today

The latest Chandler Hospital is on Limestone Street.

By Kristi Willett

University of Kentucky

Sixty years ago today, the Albert B. Chandler Hospital at the University of Kentucky opened its doors and welcomed its first patients. The hospital has evolved into the UK HealthCare system, operating three hospitals – UK Chandler, UK Good Samaritan and UK Kentucky Children’s Hospital – serving more than 40,000 patients a year.

UK HealthCare also includes more than 60 outpatient clinics, conducting more than 2.2 million outpatient visits every year, and employs more than 10,000 physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health-care providers.

“This team is dedicated to providing the most advanced, high-quality patient care to Kentucky and beyond,” said Dr. Mark F. Newman, UK's executive vice president for health affairs.

Chandler Hospital has been rated the No. 1 hospital in Kentucky by U.S. News & World Report for six years.

Access to quality health care in the Bluegrass region is something that is often taken for granted, but that hasn’t always been the case. In the early 20th century, one of every three Kentuckians examined for military service during World War II was deemed medically unfit for duty. In 1949, there were more than 5,000 unattended births in Kentucky and the state ranked near the bottom in physician-to-patient ratio, with an estimated 1,400 additional doctors needed.

In the early 1950s, a group of UK professors and the Legislative Research Commission recommended that an academic medical center be built at UK to improve health-care access for Kentuckians. The state's only medical school was at the University of Louisville.

In 1954, UK trustees committed to fulfilling the university's original charter to create a medical college and associated medical center once funds became available. During his 1955 campaign for a second, nonconsecutive term as governor, Albert B. "Happy" Chandler promised that he would get it done, and the university named it for him.

The hospital immediately became a cornerstone for educating top physicians, providing outstanding health care, and conducting breakthrough medical research. It and the rest of UK HealthCare have become a statewide hub for advanced care. Chandler Hospital is a Level 1 trauma center and has one of the largest intensive-care units in Kentucky. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the hospital and UK HealthCare played a critical role, caring for more than 4,400 patients.

“During our anniversary celebration of the opening of UK Chandler Hospital, it is vital that we honor those who came before us and worked diligently on what was merely a vision of health-care access in the 1950s and '60s,” Newman said. “We are forever grateful for those who provided the support needed to build the foundation that has led to our world-class medical facilities. It is our hope that through our work, we honor the legacy of these visionaries and leaders each and every day.”