Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review For Two Weeks Ending April 25th, 2026

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community

I hope all of you survived a no surprise tax-day season, although some of us may have just kicked the surprise downstream in filing the old extension. I for one have yet to find out if a surprise awaits me. I write this on May Day, so another month is again behind us. This pay-period included annual celebrations for two of our very important service lines: Laboratory and Health Information Management. I extend my thanks to these two great MCH teams that play such instrumental roles within (and outside) our organization. Thank You All! We now look forward to National Nurses Week followed by National Hospital Week!

I’d like to remind everyone that “survey preparedness” needs to be refreshed in everyone’s mind. It is easy to be complacent when the State of Kansas is so far behind in reviewing so many of its hospitals. And complacency can easily breed sloppiness and carelessness when it comes to keeping up with our annual training / CME recertifications or licensure requirements. We must ask ourselves that when a surveyor walks through our doors after nearly nine years since the last walk through, will they be able to readily spot some easy deficiencies? Are we as white-glove-clean as we desire to be…are we current with thorough review of our charts, our policies, and/or our job function checklists…are we current with our annual HIPPA, fire, electrical safety, and emergency preparedness training validations???? Showing a surveyor that we maintain easy to find evidence of all these things for each of our staff members will make us survey ready. I would allow that until each of us can speak confidently about these things (and attest to other department specific requirements) that we still have work to do. PLEASE SEE YOUR DEPARTMENT MANAGER if any of these items sound foreign to you…because surveyor’s desire to ask questions of whomever they come across. Thank you in advance for desiring to stay current.

As summer approaches, we need to stay focused on preventative care for those in our community that may be taking time off and can better embrace taking care of themselves. Now is a great time to get annual checkups and to learn from us how to be healthy and stay healthy. Exercise is easier to embrace in nice weather. I encourage each of you to build an exercise routine, and invite a friend to join you, so you are more apt to stick with it. I am going to practice what I am now suggesting!

To close, I ask again that you keep our patient’s needs and expectations foremost in your daily work thoughts, and I do thank you for holding onto that mindset. Have a great next two weeks!

-Kevin Leeper, CEO