UK HealthCare and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to move toward a significant partnership to provide pediatric heart care services in the region.

At UK HealthCare, the needs of patients and families come first in everything we do. In the interest of providing Kentucky families with complex care close to home, UK HealthCare has entered the first stages of a partnership with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to form one pediatric heart care program at two locations.

This partnership combines the strengths of the region’s leading provider of advanced subspecialty care in UK HealthCare with one of the country’s undisputed leaders in children’s health care, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The program will enable more Kentucky children to receive care closer to home at UK HealthCare.

In 2012, we voluntarily suspended our pediatric cardiothoracic surgery program, vowing to reopen the program only when we were confident we were ready to provide the best care to our patients and their families. We conducted an exhaustive review of our former program, concluding that a more comprehensive, systems-based approach was needed to continue providing our patients with the highest standards in subspecialty pediatric heart care.

As one of the top three children’s hospitals in the nation, Cincinnati Children’s steadfastly shares our commitment to the needs of patients around the region. Cincinnati Children’s has made significant investments in children’s health care, especially in the area of cardiac care. Most Kentucky Children’s Hospital patient families that need clinical referrals for care are already choosing Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for pediatric cardiothoracic surgery.

As we move forward in developing a foundation for this partnership, both health care systems are firmly committed to transparency. We will disclose our data and the measures detailing our performance so everyone is aware of our progress.