Kentuckians aren’t as healthy as they should be. Here’s UK’s plan to fix that
The health of Kentuckians must improve, and the University of Kentucky must play a key role in ensuring that happens.
That was the directive from the the UK Board of Trustees Friday
following the board's annual retreat focused on growing the university's statewide healthcare presence.
The annual healthcare retreat outlines strategic plans for the university to follow over the next year.
The resolution directs President Eli Capilouto to develop a growth strategy, evolve the UK HealthCare affiliate network, expand connections across the statewide extension office program and develop plans for a second health research building.
"We truly create the Commonwealth we all want, when we ensure the common health and the common good," Capilouto said.
Addressing Kentucky's physician shortage
There is a health workforce shortage in Kentucky, and the board's resolution said the university needs a plan to educate more health workers. It urged Capilouto to consider the staff and infrastructure expansions needed to support more education.
As of July 2024, 107 of 120 Kentucky's counties are classified as healthcare professionals shortage areas, meaning there are 3,500 or more patients for each provider in the county. On top of that shortage, one-third of Kentucky's primary care physicians are old enough to retire – which increases the amount of new physicians needed to serve the state.
"In many situations, our capacity has been limited to grow, at UK, the number of students that are entering the workforce ... because we've been constrained by space in our professional health care education programs," said Scott Lephart, dean of the college of health sciences.
The new $380 million health education building, to be the largest academic building on campus, will help increase enrollment, but still won't provide enough capacity to meet state workforce needs.
With that new building, set to open in 2026, the college of health science will increase enrollment by 30%, bringing an additional 460 students to campus every year. That building also will increase capacity in the college of nursing, college of public health and college of medicine.
Capilouto said he will consider the addition of new health-related certificates and majors at the university.
UK doesn't only want to fill coverage gaps by expanding education opportunities, but also by keeping graduates in the state.
In 2023, 42% of UK college of medicine graduates stayed in Kentucky to start their medical career as residents. That was a historic increase, with only 25-30% of graduates staying in the state from 2017-2018.
Expanding the UK HealthCare affiliate network
Over the past two decades, UK HealthCare has grown from zero to five affiliate networks, with over 85 locations across the state. Providers that are a part of the affiliate networks partner with UK providers and programs to expand care for patients.
The current affiliate networks support partners in one specialty area, such as cancer or stroke care.
The resolution approved the formal creation of a new affiliate group, the Advancing Kentucky Together Network, that will provide generalized support to each associated hospital instead of focusing on one specialty.
The new network will make it easier for patients across the state to get top-notch care closer to home, instead of having to travel to Lexington. The new network will start by developing partnerships with clinical programs, but may grow to include other areas – like health departments.
Co-Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Eric Monday said it's important the university partners with organizations that have an added value for the community they serve.
"We have to figure out relationships where, when we come together, it is a better outcome. It can't just be one plus one equals two – which means also there's some relationships that we shouldn't do," he said.
The Advancing Kentucky Together Network will not only give patients access to UK professionals, but will give providers access to more workforce education through UK training and outreach programs.
Improving prevention through community engagement
Trustee Hollie Swanson, a UK faculty member, said the university needs to put more emphasis on preventing health crisis', instead of reacting to them. She said a more accurate name for the current model is "UK DiseaseCare" instead of "UK HealthCare."
"If it's a system that wants to own the health of Kentucky, it seems like a logical thing would be to prevent people from even having to come into the hospital," she said. "So, how does the system provide support to those preventative type of measures?"
Trustee Elizabeth McCoy said the system should develop better public health programming in communities by leveraging UK extension offices. That's exactly what the board called the president to do.
There is a UK Cooperative Extension Office in each of Kentucky's 120 counties. These offices are mostly known for being home to local 4-H programs, but their reach is intended to be much more.
The mission of the extension program is to connect communities with all kinds of resources — not just agriculture.
The COVID pandemic caused extension programs to shift focus to disseminating health information. Now, you can often find programs on healthy eating, exercise and health screenings at offices across the state.
"What we have to do is recognize that community is where health is, health begins and health happens," said Heather Bush, dean of the college of public health. "What's happening in many cases is that we have sectors that are involved in health, but they don't talk to each other. They are disconnected."
To help breakup the information silo, UK wants each extension office to pursue deeper relationships with local health departments and other public health organizations that already have community trust.
Healthcare research at UK
Across all research areas, the university received $488.4 million in research awards for fiscal year 2023. That's not enough, according to newly named Vice President for Research Ilhem Messaoudi. For Kentucky to have better health outcomes, she said, there needs to be more research.
The problem is, there's no more space for labs on campus.
"There are some glaring deficiencies that I think would be really important for us to address. Think big and think bold, to really position us where we belong," Messaoudi said.
The board told Capilouto to develop a plan for a second Healthy Kentucky Research Building. The first cost the university $265 million and opened in 2018. All the space in that 300,000 square foot building is already accounted for and can't hold anymore researchers.
Messaoudi said with an additional building, the university could recruit more researchers and have the potential to bring in $750 million in research funding.
