Did Valenti’s Resignation Lead to UMC-Children’s Deal?

six, i’mniversity medical center. after more than a year of bitter feuding, the two hospitals have terms in place that would save the bankrupt children’s hospital without the need for bankruptcy litigation. a judge today defined what needs to happen this week: abc-seven’s complete coverage.. continues tonight. this thursday october 8th — umc will deposit $7million to pay off other creditors. the deadline to file a joint plan is this friday october 9th. and the hearing to discuss that plan would be october 19th. once the plan is filed with the court, there’s no going back, according to county commissioners. but because children’s is still fine-tuning details, nothing is for sure until that plan is filed. once this process starts, county judge veronica escobar expects the new partnership between u-m-c and children’s to be up and going by christmas./ was the resignation yesterday of u-m-c c-e-o jim valenti, effective may of 2016 … a coincidence? abc-7’s darren hunt is live with that part of the story … darren. rick/estela, judging by what i heard today from the county judge, a county commissioner and a children’s hospital doctor … it appears the resignation of valenti had a lot to do with a deal being struck. “how much of this deal had to d with him stepping down?” “definitely part of it.” e paso children’s hospital pediatric radiologist dr. steven ross … is the same doctor who told us back in july that children’s doctors just didn’t trust u-m-c c-e-o jim valenti. “universally, if you ask th doctors, they were unhappy to see jim valenti become our ceo … we made it clear we were not interested in him administrating our hospital.” dr. ross believe that was taken into consideration when a settlement was reached on monday … leading to valenti’s submission of his resignation, effective seven months from now. “i think that was a good fait move on the behalf of umc board and the county commissioners … whether people believe he was not helping the children’s hospital or if he was, no one can deny the children’s staff did not trust him.” “coincidence that mr valent submits his resignation and we have a deal on the same day?” “probably not.” commission david stout and county judge veronica escobar also hinted at a link between the two. “mr valenti realizes that you know his continuance with the hospital could have been an issue … it was completely his choice … he took it upon himself to say i’ll step out of the way so that that’s not an issue when this deal is being done.” “we’ve been asked to keep details of the deal confidential until the plan is filed, so you’ll be able to judge for yourself once you see the plan, which hopefully will be friday … but i’ll tell you this, many of us were saying its definitely time for new leadership.” ross told me doctors felt valenti, quote, “personified the hampering of children’s progress and services.” we were told valenti didn’t have time to speak with us today. but again, we should know more later this week about how important his upcoming exit was to this deal. your first alert coverage continues, next.