My Old Kentucky Site Visit

Apologies for the blog post title - I couldn't resist.

Last week, I had the pleasure of spending a day in beautiful Lexington, Kentucky visiting NAPH member hospital, UK HealthCare at the University of Kentucky. My brief trip to the Bluegrass State was motivated by an invitation from Mark Birdwhistell, UK HealthCare's Chief External Affairs Officer, to attend a panel discussion on the impacts of health reform. The panel, hosted by the Martin School of Public Policy and the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Health Care Executives was attended by several dozen people in Lexington and many others from more than ten remote sites around the state using a state-of-the-art video conferencing system. We had a lively discussion on the impacts of reform, particularly as it relates to delivery system improvements mandated and motivated by the new law.

After the discussion, Mark and UK HealthCare's Director of Public Affairs, Rob Edwards, took the time to show me around their institution. Expecting to find a sleepy, medium-sized public hospital and academic medical center in a sleepy southern city, I was blown away by what I saw. Under the bold leadership of hospital CEO Michael Karpf, MD, this health system is literally reinventing itself - becoming not only the regional medical center for central and eastern Kentucky, but also a first class academic medical center. A big part of their plans revolve around an impressive new hospital building being built adjacent to the current facility, but even more impressive to me as an "advocacy guy" is the depth of outreach Dr. Karpf, Mark and Rob are conducting with various sectors of the community. They're doing everything they can (see, for example, the Birdwhistell Blog) to spread the word about the great things coming out of UK HealthCare.

A big thanks to Mark, Rob and UKHealthCare for their hospitality and generosity.

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