UK plans new medical campus in Hamburg, with goal of easier access to health care
UK Health Care plans to buy 27 acres of land in Hamburg to build a new medical campus, the university announced Friday.
Plans for the medical campus include a new regional hospital facility, medical office building and other clinical facilities, with a focus on providing acute and outpatient care. The property, located at 2550 Winchester Road in Lexington, is expected to cost $20.3 million, according to the University of Kentucky.
The location is ideal for new facilities, located along I-75 and giving patients from across Kentucky easier access to health care, said Mark Newman, executive vice president for health affairs.
“We recognize the need to make health care more geographically accessible for our patients in Lexington as well as across central and eastern Kentucky,” Newman said. “Not only will this location be more convenient for many of our patients, it will support our continued growth in outpatient services and create more capacity for essential clinical programs.”
The campus will be located next door to the new Baptist Health Lexington campus. At the health care committee meeting, Newman was asked about potential competition between the two facilities. Newman said the two hospitals will have different focuses, with Baptist more focused on cancer treatment and UK focused on short-term and outpatient care, reducing competition between the two.
UK announced plans for the new location at the health care committee meeting on Friday morning, with the finance committee later voting to approve the land purchase. The full board of trustees approved the land purchase on Friday afternoon.
The new medical campus “enhances our ability for patients to get to us, in the local market, as well as more broadly from across the state,” Newman said.
The new facility will increase capacity for UK HealthCare, allowing some shorter-term patients to move from the Chandler Medical Center. That will in turn open up space for patients in need of longer-term care from Chandler, Newman said.
“We’re building more capacity, both in terms of our facilities and our people, with additional hires on the physician side, on the staff side,” Newman said. “That increased access is what we want to be able to do.”
The vote on Friday was to enter into a purchase agreement, and UK will complete a period of due diligence, including additional approval from Kentucky’s Secretary of Finance and Administration. After the purchase is complete, a master plan for the new facilities will be developed and presented to the board for final approval, Newman said.
The purchase agreement includes a right of first refusal on additional parcels of land in the area, allowing UK HealthCare the option to expand. More details and plans for the campus will be announced after the purchase is final, according to UK.
“A healthier state, one where more people have greater access to the quality of care we provide, is a critical part of (our) mission,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “This purchase and potential development is another critical step to ensure we have the capacity to treat more patients in our community and region as we continue to focus on transforming Kentucky into a state that is healthier, wealthier and wiser.”
About the property
The property on Winchester Road was the site of the Meadowcrest historic home, which was built in 1929, according to Fayette County Property Value Administrator records. The home had been abandoned for years, and in 2017, was used to film the horror movie “The Wiccan.”
In January, Lexington developer, Cowgill Properties, filed a demolition permit. Planning documents from earlier this year show that the property was expected to be turned into a multi-use development including businesses and residential properties.
Cowgill Properties purchased the land and home for $2.85 million in 1999, according to property records.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 11:44 AM.