UK to close Good Samaritan Hospital in 2029, move operations to expanded Chandler Hospital
The University of Kentucky will stop operations at Good Samaritan Hospital in 2029 and move those services to the areas of Chandler Hospital that are planned for expansion in coming years, the university said Thursday.
No employees at Good Samaritan will lose their jobs, but will move to other UK HealthCare locations, said Eric Monday, co-acting executive vice president for health affairs. Monday said UK will continue to invest in and operate Good Samaritan until then.
The hospital was founded in 1888 and acquired by UK HealthCare in 2007. There are more than 600 clinical and ancillary staff and more than 600 physicians employed there, with 180 licensed hospital beds in the facility, according to the hospital. Good Samaritan houses the second-largest orthopaedic and joint replacement program in Kentucky.
“The decommissioning of Good Samaritan and moving those beds into an expansion of UK Chandler Hospital is part of the overall plan to improve facilities that provide maximum flexibility to create capacity and ensure quality care,” said Allison Perry, UK spokesperson.
There will be more updates as the plans for expanding UK HealthCare move forward, Perry said, and UK envisions “the transitioning — over the next several years — of services and employees at Good Samaritan to new facilities with an overall increase in both our workforce and patient care services.”
UK has plans for massive expansion of its health care system in the coming years, including plans to add 300 hospital beds to the Chandler Hospital campus with a new hospital tower and four new outpatient locations in and around Lexington.
Monday said the expansion of Chandler Hospital means UK HealthCare will need to hire 5,000 additional employees in the next six years, and the closure of Good Samaritan does not mean jobs will be eliminated.
“We will ensure that everyone who has a job at Good Samaritan who wants to stay, and we want them to stay with the university, will have a job in some of our other health care facilities,” Monday said.
In total, the UK HealthCare expansions could top $2.4 billion, university officials said earlier this year. More details and specifics about the expansion will come as the university works through the design phase of the project.
UK plans to open four new outpatient locations across the Lexington area, in Hamburg, Madison County, Frankfort and one under-served area of Lexington. Opening those locations, and others in progress, will include an additional 29 primary care providers within UK HealthCare by the end of fiscal year 2025.
Last year, the board approved plans for the new medical campus in Hamburg, which includes a regional hospital, medical office building and other clinical facilities.
Chandler Hospital and Kentucky Children’s Hospital need to expand in several areas, Monday said earlier this year, including the neonatal intensive care unit, the pediatric intensive care unit , acute care, behavioral health, and emergency and urgent care. One issue the health care system is facing is being able to accept transfers to UK because of the hospital’s capacity.
By expanding in those areas, Monday said the goal is to not have to turn any patient away because of capacity concerns.
This story was originally published June 15, 2023 at 4:35 PM.