For more than a century, Kansans have looked to the University of Kansas as a source of healing and hope. Our health science schools in Kansas City and Wichita and our hospital in Kansas City have consistently worked for the people of Kansas by training health-care professionals and offering excellent care to patients.
I am pleased this week that the University of Kansas Medical Center, the University of Kansas Hospital and the doctors of KU Physicians, Inc., reached an agreement that will advance our KU mission of improving the quality of health care in Kansas.
The product of many months of work, this agreement allows our University and the KU Hospital to succeed together. It calls for more than 100 new residents to be educated at KU, provides new resources to help recruit and retain the best physicians, funds construction of a new outpatient medical office building, invests in research endeavors and provides a strong partnership to advance our university’s quest to build a world-class cancer center. The agreement also provides a process for the University and Hospital to jointly plan for the future.
I commend Dr. Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center, for her visionary leadership. I’m also grateful to Bob Page, the president and CEO of KU Hospital, for his commitment to collaborate as a valued partner. Additionally, Dr. Kirk Benson, who serves as president of KUPI, did an outstanding job representing the voice of physicians during these deliberations. These leaders and their teams worked through challenging issues to craft an agreement that will benefit Kansas and our region.
We have now a framework for success. But to realize the full promise of this agreement we must continue to work together as one. KU cannot have a great academic medical center without a great hospital and without great schools of medicine, nursing and allied health.
This agreement with our most important partner, KU Hospital, sets the stage for expanded agreements with other hospitals, research institutions and health care providers in the region, such as Saint Luke’s Hospital. It enables us to build our Midwest Cancer Alliance, a network of regional oncologists and cancer care providers, as we work toward National Cancer Institute designation.
Thanks to this agreement and the collaborations that will follow from it, KU will continue to be at the heart of the drive to deliver high-quality health care to the people of Kansas and to make discoveries and cures for Kansans and others around the world.
Sincerely,
Bob Hemenway
Chancellor
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