Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review For Two Weeks Ending May 23th, 2026

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community

This year is suddenly creeping towards its midpoint. And as such I can truly attest to it being the most interesting of times: 1.) AI is accelerating its influence on healthcare at near undiscernible speed, 2.) an aligned charge to disruptively innovate how healthcare operates is being cast out from Washington DC (and Topeka) at decibels higher than ever heard before, 3.) the RHTP funding opportunities for rural healthcare have at last been defined for release, perhaps in the nick of time, to hopefully respond to the inescapable infiltration of AI and government mandates, and lastly, 4.) as the 21^st century consumer more commonly expects their needs for appointments and services to be on their terms, we again see an emergence of primary care alternatives competing with the more conventional pathways that we deliver. All of this on top of the routine stresses of growing business commensurate with the continually growing cost side of operations - whoever said inflation ever got down as low as 2.5 to 3.0% (government hired economists, that’s who)?

I apologize for this issue’s late release. I had the privilege of attending KHA’s Annual Board retreat last week, in which we heard from several prominent speakers on how Kansas healthcare is in a state of flux, as mentioned earlier, and just how we need to best plan for the imminent changes. As a member of the product and services Review Committee, we were specifically charged, by the KHA Board, with identifying and making available the very best and most likely to succeed AI companies, of which hundreds are emerging. This will be no small task but one in which there is a high level of commitment to deliver. Many hospitals have already engaged AI partners, so there are track records already getting celebrated and others getting buried.

The other news release of late last week was the announcement of the first few rounds of RHTP grant awardees. As expected, there was a considerable effort to spread monies out so that most applicants were awarded something, and few hospitals had more than one award. Hence, of the four grants on which MCH was included, it was only our largest valued one that we walked away with! The Stormont Vail entry was fully funded at $5.5 million, the second largest grant awarded!! As there are only four rural hospitals in this first year’s group of participants, I am extremely excited about how this money can be used to support MCH! The capital component in Telehealth equipment and physician access support already earmarks over $1 million for MCH alone…much more on that in future news releases!

It was disappointing that our capital improvement grant of converting our EMS barn into a Senior Solutions Center was not approved, but some grant writing lessons WERE garnered, and Year 2’s opportunity is not far away. We definitely received our highest preferred option. I have run into another funding option that might pave the way into our Geropsyche / Second OR Room / Expanded Cardiac Rehab capital project. More on that funding option if it gains the expected traction over the next few weeks. And lastly, we have had or are scheduling initial interviews with three new 2^nd year resident FP/OBs! Our new recruiters are paying dividends.

My customary encouragement applies with this letter: please keep our patients’ 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