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Rapidly Expanding AdventHealth Extends Its Reach To Ottawa, Kansas

Ransom Memorial Hospital, a 44-bed acute-care facility in Ottawa, Kansas, was founded in 1931.
AdventHealth
Ransom Memorial Hospital, a 44-bed acute-care facility in Ottawa, Kansas, was founded in 1931.

AdventHealth will take over operation of Ransom Memorial Health, a 44-bed acute-care hospital in Ottawa, Kansas, the Florida-based health system announced on Wednesday.

Ransom Memorial will be renamed AdventHealth Ottawa. It joins other members of the AdventHealth network, including AdventHealth Shawnee Mission in Merriam, Kansas, formerly known as Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

In 2017, Ransom Memorial partnered with Shawnee Mission Medical Center to offer expanded cardiology services at Ransom Memorial.

“Our hospital and patients have already benefited from the relationship we have cultivated with AdventHealth over the years through AdventHealth Shawnee Mission,” Matt Heyn, CEO of Ransom Memorial, said in a statement.

Heyn, who joined the hospital in 2014, will remain CEO.

Because Franklin County owns the title to Ransom Memorial and its underlying land, AdventHealth will lease the hospital from the county.  

The hospital lost nearly $2 million on total patient revenue of just over $100 million as of the end of 2017, according to the American Hospital Directory.

Ottawa, with a population of around 12,300, is about 50 miles southwest of Kansas City. Ransom Memorial is its only acute-care hospital. 

The hospital traces its roots to 1931, when 11 employees began offering medical care out of a small, two-story building, according to Ransom Memorial’s website. The hospital expanded over the decades, and in 1973 a new building was added. The original building was demolished in 1989. In 2012, another building was added.  

In 2016, Ransom Memorial partnered with Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Lawrence, Kansas, to provide cancer services. In 2017, it opened a 16,000-square-foot emergency department.

AdventHealthis affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church and operates more than 45 hospitals in nine states as well as hundreds of outpatient clinics, skilled nursing homes, home health agencies and hospices. The Altamone Springs, Florida, -based company has ambitious plans to expand its presence in metropolitan Kansas City.

In January, AdventHealth Shawnee Mission announced that it would break ground in the fall on an 85-bed hospital in south Overland Park, Kansas. It also plans to open an outpatient health facility at the corner of College Boulevard and Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park and a medical office building in Merriam.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

Copyright 2019 KCUR 89.3

Dan Margolies is editor in charge of health news at KCUR, the public radio station in Kansas City. Dan joined KCUR in April 2014. In a long and varied journalism career, he has worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Business Journal, The Kansas City Star and Reuters. In a previous life, he was a lawyer. He has also worked as a media insurance underwriter and project development director for a video production firm.
Dan Margolies
Dan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and moved to Kansas City with his family when he was eight years old. He majored in philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and holds law and journalism degrees from Boston University. He has been an avid public radio listener for as long as he can remember – which these days isn’t very long… Dan has been a two-time finalist in The Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, and has won multiple regional awards for his legal and health care coverage. Dan doesn't have any hobbies as such, but devours one to three books a week, assiduously works The New York Times Crossword puzzle Thursdays through Sundays and, for physical exercise, tries to get in a couple of rounds of racquetball per week.