Strategic purchase plan approved by UK Board of Trustees Executive Committee

Earlier today, the UK Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee approved a plan for UK HealthCare to enter into a joint venture for Lexington Surgery Center, an affiliate of Surgical Care Affiliates, LLC (SCA).

Lexington Surgery Center opened in 1981. In 2002, the facility moved to its current 27,000-square-foot location at 1451 Harrodsburg Road. It boasts eight operating rooms and four procedure rooms.

“This important step is one of the first in our updated strategic plan, as presented to our Board of Trustees in June,” said Mark F. Newman, MD, UK HealthCare executive vice president for health affairs. “As we continue to advance in our existing expertise in advanced subspecialty care, we must improve outpatient care to better serve our own UK employees and their families as well as offer more accessible, cost-effective care to those in the Bluegrass region.

“This venture also frees up additional surgical capacity within our existing surgical facilities, enabling us to better serve all of our patients on a more timely basis. We needed more flexibility with space and capacity to satisfy patient demand and support our faculty and clinical support teams. Right now, we are severely constrained in the space we have to fully support our entire continuum of advanced care,” said Newman.

SCA is an experienced ambulatory surgery center operator that strategically partners with health plans, medical groups and health systems across the country to develop and optimize surgical facilities.

Using a newly created UK-affiliated entity, Surgery Blue, UK HealthCare will invest $1.2 million of its clinical revenues, which is the fair market value determined by a third-party health care appraiser. UK HealthCare will own 51 percent of the general partner of Lexington Surgery Center, while SCA will own 49 percent of the general partner and manage the center.

Current and future employees of Lexington Surgery Center will remain SCA employees (not UK or UK HealthCare employees) per the existing facility management agreement.

Selected UK HealthCare providers will begin performing procedures at Lexington Surgery Center alongside current providers once the transaction is finalized.

“Given our current constraints and the 15 new surgical recruits anticipated to begin by the end of October, we will move as carefully and quickly as possible to complete this transaction and establish the guidelines and procedures necessary to triage our ambulatory surgery patients to the most appropriate setting,” said Newman. “We will continue to provide updates as the transaction proceeds, including information about finalizing the transaction, pre-implementation plans, and implementation.”