TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A health care company and the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences have agreed to push back the deadline for transferring ownership of Oklahoma State University Medical Center to a public trust by a year.
“It is definitely positive that we’ve extended the deadline,” Ellen Averill, OSU Center for Health Sciences spokeswoman said. “That gives us additional time to find a solution.”
During the year, OSU Medical Center will remain under the ownership of Ardent Health Services, which also owns Hillcrest Medical Center and regional hospitals under the Hillcrest HealthCare System.
Under the new Academic Affiliation Agreement, the hospital can employ 132 medical residents now training at OSU Medical Center. Ardent will reimburse OSU for those residency program costs, including salaries and medical malpractice insurance.
The school also has agreed to return the remainder of federal Indirect Medical Education funds that were the subject of a federal court lawsuit filed by Ardent against the Oklahoma Health Care Authority last year.
As for Ardent, the company will dismiss its lawsuit.
“Our willingness to enter into this new agreement is a clear reflection of a private company’s commitment to one of our state’s most valuable community health assets, the OSU-CHS graduate teaching program,” Earl Denning, president of Oklahoma division of Nashville, Tenn.-based Ardent Health Services, said.
Few details were available about why the deadline was extended or what will happen over the next year toward transferring ownership of the hospital to a public trust.
OSU and Ardent Health Services began negotiations in December after Ardent offered to donate the hospital to the state, along with continuing to manage the facility.
On April 1, the parties announced they had agreed to transfer hospital ownership to a public trust by June 30.
Oklahoma State officials were to establish the public trust, hire a partner firm to manage the hospital and create a new board of directors for the trust.
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