A few days ago I wrote once more about human organ transplantation in Kentucky. No sooner had my bytes hit the ether than a long inked piece featuring the latest hand transplant at Jewish Hospital appeared in the Courier Journal. The article had earmarks of the “press-release” method of media access including a big front page color photo of the surgical suite and the patient. There is no doubt that reattaching limbs to their original owners (or to a new host) represents a spectacular technical accomplishment. Such operations usually make the news somewhere. Continue reading “Twenty-six Years of Human Organ Transplantation in Kentucky.”
Author: P Hasselbacher
University of Louisville Appeals Finding That Its Hospital is a Public Entity.
Appeals court documents available.
[Addendum: Case has been further appealed to KY Supreme Court.]
I recently was able to obtain some of the court documents related to University Medical Center, Inc’s appeal of a lower court’s finding that it is a public institution and not the private corporation it claims to be. You can read some of the background on this case in an earlier article to which I have also added the links below. Continue reading “University of Louisville Appeals Finding That Its Hospital is a Public Entity.”
Financial Status a Barrier to Organ Transplantation But Not Donation.
It is easier to give than to receive in the transplant world.
In a comment added to a recent article about the current financial status of Catholic Health Initiatives (the parent company of KentuckyOne Health) it was alleged that Jewish Hospital in Louisville did not accept Medicaid patients for organ transplantation. Because of the seriousness of this allegation, I was reluctant to allow it to stand without further comment. I therefore did some research and elicited comments from involved parties. The results trouble me and highlight yet another major example of the disparity of access to health care in our inherently unfair non-system, dividing Americans as it does by socio-economic status. In the case of transplantation, the operational result is particularly ugly, because the weight of government regulation and community has given us a morally indefensible result analogous to the rich stealing organs from the poor. I call this an example of the “Reverse Robin Hood” nature of America’s National Health System! Neither Jewish Hospital nor UofL are responsible for this situation, but have benefited from it. Continue reading “Financial Status a Barrier to Organ Transplantation But Not Donation.”
First Oral Arguments in Norton Healthcare vs. University of Louisville
Last Wednesday, I made a field trip to Frankfort for what is to my knowledge, the first face-to-face extended oral argument between the University of Louisville and Norton Healthcare over Norton Kosair Children’s Hospital. It is easy for me to get lost in the sequence of the legal proceedings, but nominally the hearing was over Norton’s motion to dismiss UofL’s counterclaims to its original motion of last year for Declaratory Relief from UofL’s attempt to seize physical control of its Children’s Hospital. (You see what I mean?) As I understand it, even if Norton were to succeed this week, the legal dispute between the two parties would not be over. Nonetheless, the two-hour hearing laid out the major positions and tenor of both parties and was instructive. Continue reading “First Oral Arguments in Norton Healthcare vs. University of Louisville”