More than a year after everything was supposed to be settled and taken care of, the transition between St. Vincent and IU Health involving the hospital facility in Frankfort is still ongoing.
“We’re still working on getting an acquisition agreement together and getting that whole hospital deal finalized,” said Clinton County Commissioners President Josh Uitts Tuesday. “But, we’ve kind of hit a fork in the road and it seems like things have slowed to a glacial pace.”
Uitts wouldn’t elaborate on what the main issues were. However, one thing is for sure.
“We’re frustrated,” said Uitts. “We’re ready to get this done because we know what it means to Clinton County and we know what the folks here deserve. We think this is an opportunity for all parties to come a winner here. We just need to get it done and get over the finish line.”
On May 31, 2017, the Commissioenrs, IU Health and St. Vincent went through more than six hours of negotiations before coming to an agreement on the changeover at the Frankfort Hospital. However, Scott Shoemaker, who was the Commissioners’ president at the time, emphasized this was just an interim agreement with other agreements to follow. He added it was basically an amendment to the master lease.
In 2016, the county agreed to contract with IU Health after St. Vincent said they wouldn’t renew their agreement after several years
“There’s three parties involved in this and Clinton County is one of them,” said Uitts. “Unfortunately, the other two parties don’t seem to be able to agree to some contractual language and some language in the agreement. I’ve expressed my frustration repeatedly to our legal counsel and to expedite the process. I think the folks here in Clinton County deserve to have this deal finished.”