A proposed settlement up for Cincinnati City Council approval today would dispose of lawsuits contesting privatization of University Hospital in a deal that is good for the community and good for the hospital. Council should approve the deal.

The consolidated lawsuits date from 1996, before transfer of operating control of the hospital in 1997 to the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. In 1999, parties to the suit agreed to suspend litigation and work toward settlement.

Chief among the plaintiffs' concerns was whether the hospital would continue to care for the community's indigent. Since then, the Health Alliance has shown its commitment to indigent care, and this proposed deal adds new features not envisioned in the original lawsuits. One, the Health Alliance agrees to spend $2 million over 10 years to create a Health Disparities Center to research how to reduce persistent health gaps here among "underserved populations" with higher disease and death rates and lower treatment rates. The deal secures the hospital's mission to treat those unable to pay and commits the Health Alliance to promote more minorities into upper management and contract with more minority businesses. The settlement also commits the Alliance to keep improving its partnership with city health clinics.

This is a tough, competitive time for urban hospitals. In recent years Bethesda and Jewish hospitals have closed their facilities in the city. It is very much in Cincinnati's interest to see that this region's top teaching hospital and number one trauma center stays healthy.

There remains concern over the hospital's long-term ability to provide its current level of indigent care. The agreement does include this qualifier: "provided that the Health Alliance receives adequate funding from the Hamilton County Indigent Care Levy and other sources of funding...." But a duty to treat the poor is clear in the original transfer agreements which remain in force, said Dr. Malcolm Adcock, Cincinnati's health commissioner, a supporter of the deal.

William L. Mallory Sr., former majority leader of the Ohio House of Representatives and lead plaintiff in the lawsuits, hailed the settlement as "one of the proudest moments in Cincinnati history."

The Health Alliance, which also includes Christ, Jewish, Fort Hamilton and St. Luke West hospitals, has benefited from such a valuable asset as University Hospital. And the hospital also has benefited from being part of the Alliance, which, since 1997, has made more than $170 million in capital investments in the facility. The settlement will allow the alliance to refinance debt or do other borrowing without a pending city lawsuit against it.

It is time to put this dispute to rest so that all parties can keep working together to see that University Hospital fulfills its historic mission.