hospitals

Nearly two years after Mercy Hospital closed its doors, the southeast Kansas town of Independence is still without a hospital.

But it may have the next best thing: a new state-of-the-art clinic with an emergency room and a small cancer treatment center.

The nearly $8 million Independence Healthcare Center operates as an extension of Labette Health, a regional hospital about 35 miles to the east in Parsons.

“This is a department of the hospital,” said Labette Health head nurse Kathi McKinney, while giving a tour of the center during its dedication Saturday.

The Wichita Children’s Mercy Hospital will be closed until Monday due to a power outage. 

Officials with Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City say its Wichita location lost power on Thursday. The hospital shares facilities with Wesley Medical Center on Hillside, which also lost power for a short time after an electrical malfunction caused a small explosion. No one was hurt in the incident.

Few people associate hospitals with fine dining--hence the term “hospital food.” But a group of Kansas hospitals is out to change that.

Not only are they working to make the food they serve to patients, staff and visitors better, they’re working to make it healthier. Heartland Health Monitor’s Bryan Thompson traveled to northwest Kansas to visit one of the hospitals involved in the effort.

A lot of the hospitals in rural Kansas are called “Critical Access Hospitals.” It’s an important designation, because Critical Access Hospitals were created by the federal government to maintain access to health care in rural areas. But as Heartland Health Monitor’s Bryan Thompson reports, several factors are making it harder for those hospitals to survive.

There are a lot of small, rural hospitals in Kansas. Without them, many residents would have to travel long distances for care. And in many small towns, the hospital is one of the largest employers - making it vital to the local economy. But declining populations, combined with changes in the way hospitals are paid for services, are making it more difficult for many to survive. Heartland Health Monitor's Bryan Thompson has more.