Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review (June 5th, 2025)

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community

For Pay Period Ending May 31st

Being a week late, as I was out most of last week, and with our month of May ending on a Saturday, the last day of our weekly reporting cycles, leads me to report (for this time only) three weeks of data, instead of the customary two. The data you see will give you a glimpse of how our monthly totals fared with their respective budgeted totals - see the right-hand column shaded in green on pages 5 and 6 below. We have endured a slow month regarding our overnight census, which does drive some of the volumes of our ancillary departments. So again – lots of red metrics to report. Interestingly, of the eight green metrics we generated over the past three weeks, four of them can be directly attributed to the crazy busy ER period we experienced due to accidents on the Unbound Gravel race on May 31st! So “green volumes” in both of EMS’s metrics, for the # of ER visits, and for total plain x-rays taken, were a result of the several bicycle accidents we cared for on May 31st! The 5,000 riders plus their support crews traveling through Council Grove last weekend did contribute extra business for MCH. I am sure many other businesses fared very well, too. Thanks to our individuals that worked so hard to care for these numerous accidents. What a special day for our community to be a part of this global event!

In attending the KHA Board retreat last week, we were updated on many things we have been hearing about for years: our aging population, relative to the past, as couples everywhere are having fewer children, our shrinking healthcare workforce due to pandemic burnout, and the resulting storm ahead as we all know most required healthcare is towards the end of life. So, a very real hovering question is “who is going to take care of us in our later years”, with the convergence of millions of older people and a shrinking number of caregivers. The absolute dependence on Telehealth will be a critical piece moving forward, something that our community has not had a lot of exposure to. Technology will produce labor replacing options and innovation will be essential as well. But this question remains largely unanswered currently.

The other hot topic was that of healthcare’s cost to our overall economy. As providers, we have grown accustomed to personalizing how we deliver our care. The USA has fostered choice in how providers approach their care plans and subsequently, creating a choice as to which doctors we as patients gravitate to for the style of care we prefer. Differentiation in how medicine is practiced domestically has proven to yield the highest per capita health expenditure in the world, by far. A move towards more standardization in adopting best practices is viewed as the best way to squeeze cost out of the system. And a huge part of the cost is on the administrative side of securing payment for services! Simplification in that area would be so impactful, if we could somehow better align incentives. It all comes down to seeking and adopting change that works on both a micro and macro level. So if anyone has good ideas, advocate for them through your State and local leaders!

Thanks, as usual, to all of our team for consistently caring for our patients! Have a great two weeks!

Kevin Leeper, CEO