Newman Regional Health administrators and board members discussed the community impact of the hospital’s work during the board’s monthly meeting this week.
Chief Executive Officer Cathy Pimple says the update was important for residents to understand the breadth of work taking place at the hospital to keep people healthy.
The “Provision of Services and Economic Impact” discussion covered the range of services provided at the hospital as well as patient traffic data. The hospital has around 3,500 inpatient admissions, around 3,500 surgical procedures conducted, over 14,000 emergency room visits. Pimple says Newman Regional Health also offered over 500,000 outpatient “diagnostic encounters” and over 100,000 outpatient visits last year.
Given the number of services, the level of service to the community and the increased patient traffic in several categories, Pimple says it’s vitally important for Newman Regional Health to remain viable and thriving. Following a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform this summer saying many hospitals in Kansas are at risk of closing, Pimple says Newman Regional Health is not at risk at this time — but rural health care has challenges that urban hospitals don’t handle. She says the hospital’s Critical Access cost structure helps the hospital’s financial stability and the patient traffic is higher than at other, smaller Critical Access hospitals in Kansas.
