UK HealthCare

KCH to Manage NICU at Frankfort Regional Medical Center

Photo of Frankfort Regional Medical Center

LEXINGTON, KY. (July 30, 2020) – UK HealthCare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH) will partner with HCA Healthcare’s Frankfort Regional Medical Center (FRMC) to assume management of the FRMC Level II neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), effective July 30, 2020.

KCH neonatologist Dr. Prasad Bhandary will be the medical director of the four-bed NICU, and 10 other neonatologists from KCH will be credentialed to serve Frankfort’s tiniest patients.

“We are thrilled to partner with the staff at Frankfort Regional,” said Bhandary. “It’s important that families stay close to home for care, and we’re honored the leadership at Frankfort Regional entrusts us with the care of their most vulnerable patients.”

“We are proud to team up with KCH for to provide NICU care for the communities we serve,” said Reed Hammond, FRMC chief executive officer. “We feel that this partnership provides our patients the best care available while keeping them close to home.”

Vital services for premature babies such as tests for prematurity of retinopathy, a condition in which a newborn’s eyes are underdeveloped, will be conducted by UK HealthCare ophthalmologists, and other tests, such as echocardiograms and electrocardiograms, will be sent to physicians at UK for review.

About Kentucky Children’s Hospital

Kentucky Children's Hospital, part of the University of Kentucky HealthCare system, is committed to providing the best care possible, for children as well as families. Nationally ranked in orthopedics and heart care, and with the region's only Level I pediatric trauma center and Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, KCH is equipped to provide the highest level of care to young patients, close to home.

About Frankfort Regional Medical Center

Owned by HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services, Frankfort Regional Medical Center is a 173-bed, acute care facility, Accredited Chest Pain Center with Primary PCI, Level III Trauma Center, Primary Stroke Center, and Certified Total Joint Care Program. Frankfort Regional has received numerous awards and accolades for its quality of care, including Magnet® designation for nursing excellence and has been chosen as One of Kentucky’s Best Places to Work for 14 consecutive years.  For more information, visit frankfortregional.com.

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.