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Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community For Pay Period Ending March 29th March pretty well blew by (literally) and April’s awakening of spring is with us! You know you’re in the Flint Hills as the smell of ash is in the air...a beautiful odor to those who know how it affects our local economy! The cattle trucks will be rolling in from all over our country in the coming days and weeks.   As our nation’s leaders seek feverishly to deal with our nation’s unsustainable spending habits, we hear of concerns reaching our healthcare industry, especially to our Medicaid Program, used to cover 72 million low-income Americans. A budget resolution is important to both our House and Senate chambers, but we hope they will not compromise access to healthcare for such a large group of our constituents. If you agree, do reach out to Senators Marshall and Moran, as well as Representative Schmidt and tell them to protect the current Medicaid Program. Kansas has saved the government by not expanding Medicaid, so we cannot handle any reductions.   Our week has ended with a very nice interview with a second-year resident, Dr. Katie Hrencher, a Family Medicine and OB physician, and her husband Jacob who would be a great addition to our middle or high school faculty. Thanks to those of you who spent time with them and shared the great things our community offers. I will keep you abreast how their search for a summer of 2026 landing spot plays out. We can hope Council Grove will be their choice. I also have a first phone interview with another 2026 candidate on Monday...her name being Dr. Kayden Carter.   Still not real content with the low number of our metrics being reached on a weekly basis, but we did raise our targets to aggressive levels, and we’re not missing our targets by much. The best thing we can do is keep treating ALL our patients with great compassion and competence in each of our interactions with them. Thanks for doing just that!!   Have a great next two weeks! Kevin Leeper, CEO

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community For Pay Period Ending March 15th Quite the start of March, on through Spring Break Week! It just seems like a little bit of everything has wanted to show its face to the tune of the spring-like weather that we have been enjoying, including a mini blizzard that never quite materialized a couple of days ago…thank goodness. The circle of life has certainly been realized inside the MCH greater family, with the recent arrival of three newborns in a three-day window and the sad passage from this world of a few dear loved ones. May each respective family find joy for their future or seek comfort from their memories.   Through a somewhat unexpected news release, MCH was awarded a designation of making the Top 100 Rural Hospital in 2025 list, a couple of weeks ago, by the Chartis Group, LLC, a data analytics company. Our overall score of 97.1 actually elevates us to the Top 40 of all 2,100 rural hospitals across the Country, which Chartis annually evaluates with the use of 36 different metrics across eight different categories. They use all publicly available data from required reporting submissions of any facility that participates in the Medicare program (which is virtually every hospital). The data for this release was from the year ending 2023, as there is a lag in gathering all this data from hospitals with different fiscal year cycles. In a separate release, Chartis separately honors the top 20 hospitals (of the top 100), so now that we better know their criteria used in this analysis, we can set ourselves an objective to improve our scores in our lower two categories, enough in 2024 and 2025, to achieve that upper tier ranking. I will be preparing  a more detailed news release for our Community on this distinction in the next couple of weeks.   March Madness can now be legitimately experienced, as the games have officially begun…may your favorite team win, or at least your bracket do well. If you are not a basketball fan, there still seems to be a growing number of TV channel options popping up every week. Better yet, why don’t we shake off the winter doldrums and start getting active again. I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else in similar shoes. Have a great next two weeks! Kevin Leeper, CEO

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community For Pay Period Ending March 1st Sometimes we just like to play the blame game…so I will throw the Chiefs under the bus and blame their lethargic play on February 9th for the lethargic rest of February that we experienced at MCH relative to an expected normal winter month. Not that I am unappreciative of the large number of patients that we were fortunate enough to look after but it is the first time in a while that we so drastically fell below our budgeted service line numbers. Thanks for our Lab department, our Endoscope procedures, and our Cardiac Rehab spike in patients, or we would really have had a dismal last pay period of red values. Cash collections were also a plus, but that is a tribute to the infusion of property taxes we receive at this time of year.   I want to make a public statement for the benefit of our patient base. Our Revenue Cycle Team that processes and files claims, receives and posts payments, and in general manages ALL patient accounts properly, has simply not been at the standard we strive to maintain, over the past few months now. A large last quarter of 2024 turnover in our contracted billing service’s staff has played into this, as well as a significant turnover and sick days within our local hospital team. The healthcare business sector does not experience any smooth sailing when it comes to collecting from third party insurance plans these days. And when new people are trying to learn their computer software as well as all the insurance company nuances thrown at them daily, we have been set up for a step back in accurate and timely claims processing…and we are experiencing it. It is a grueling exercise to catch up from multiple discovered corrections that are needed on patient’s accounts, and that is where we currently find ourselves trudging through. And to help with this process moving forward, a reorganization of the department is being conducted…more on that later.   So, with this confession, I ask you to attempt being patient with our correcting some erroneous statements that have gone out in recent weeks…and know that by the first of April we hope to have them fully corrected. We will not send out any new statements until then, and if you prefer to hold off on making payments until then, we understand. But if your statement does concern you, please call our Business Office to make sure that someone is looking at and working your account.   I realize this has not been an uplifting report. Sometimes they simply won’t be. But hey…February is over, the fume of spring is hinting at us, and the Chiefs have a new draft ahead of them to plug a gap or two. Thanks for all you do and do spread this message to those whom you might have heard grumbling. Have a great next two weeks! Kevin Leeper, CEO

March is National Nutrition Month!  Healthy Eating Tips for the whole family from the American Heart Assoc.       For snack time, keep fresh fruit and pre-chopped or no-chop veggies on hand. Your family is more likely to grab fruits and vegetables over the other items if they're readily available. Enjoy fish high in omega-3 fatty acids. Oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, trout, and albacore tuna are good choices. A  small handful of nuts or seeds   can be a satisfying and healthy snack. Look for unsalted or lightly salted nuts. Almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts are all good choices. Vegetables and fruits are loaded with nutrients and fiber, and typically low in calories and sodium.  Fresh, frozen or canned produce can all be healthy choices ,  but compare food labels and choose wisely.  And don't forget  -  Parents say family is less stressed when they eat together March is also National Colon Cancer Awareness Month. Did you know that age 45 is the recommended age to begin screening for cancer? And it may be earlier if you have a family history of colon or rectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death. Colorectal cancer affects men and women, and people of all races and nationalities. 30% of colorectal cancer diagnoses are under the age of 55. Often, those who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer have experienced no signs or symptoms associated with the disease. Don't put off your screening any longer. Call the clinic today to make an appointment or to speak with your doctor. 620-767-5126 This month we are changing our normal Health Wise Lunch from the third Wednesday to the first Wednesday.   Physical Therapist, Luke Plummer will be speaking about the effects of poor posture as well as how you can correct it. You will learn valuable exercises to improve your posture--and your health! Lunch is $6 and you do need to reserve your spot. You can call 620-767-6811 ext. 148 or ema il szeigler@mrcohosp.com   to reserve a spot. Join us for a fun and informative evening about Women's Health on Wednesday, March 19th, at the Territory Ballroom. Our pelvic floor experts, Kelsey Hartman and Christy Ziegenhirt, will share pelvic floor education and how to avoid common symptoms like leaking when you laugh or sneeze. For $25 per person, you can enjoy a couple of margaritas, chips & salsa, and you will go home with exercises to work on at home. When you RSVP before the event, you will also receive a free book! You can RSVP to Nicky Tiffany at 785-587-7870 The MCH Auxiliary is taking applications for their $500 scholarships through April 15, 2025. Applications can be picked up at the front desk of the Hospital or through the high school counselors in Council Grove and White City. If you have any questions, call Stacy Zeigler at 620-767-6811 ext. 148 Our Assisted Living Center residents enjoy all sorts of activities each month and we love having guests! We are looking for community volunteers (adults and/or students) to lead an activity a week.  We love games, arts & crafts, and of course playing cards! The friendships created here are one of the best parts of this unique living setting!  MCAL currently has three apartments available for rent, so if you are considering a move, now is the time to enquire. You can call Laverne at 620-767-5600 to set up a volunteer time, a tour or to have lunch with this fun crew. MCH Facebook Page Contact Stacy Zeigler with any questions concerning MCH Foundation events, to register for an event, or to book a speaker for your group or organization. Email:  Szeigler@mrcohosp.com   or call: 620-767-6811 ext. 148

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community For Pay Period Ending February 15th Thirty days into our new Federal Administration, as well as into our requisite State law making sessions, is enough to be quite the fatiguing distraction if you open your ears to the constant clamor, the reactions, and the outright chatter clatter that envelopes us through today’s digital bombardments. It’s sometimes a wonder we can manage to conduct routine business as usual. Changes of many kinds are certainly in the wind, and it will take some extra study to keep up with where we just might land…but I just want to keep our sails tacking smoothly for the course of MCH. We just need to try to manage what is in our own spheres of influence.   The weather has continued to compromise our smooth course, but all in all we are still trending in a growth pattern relative to same months of our prior year. Some degree of growth is the only way we can contend with the continued inflationary squeezes we all are feeling (which is nowhere near as low as the reported 3%). We knew we were going to start the year with an elevated payroll, but rewarding our staff with a true investment in them (at the end of 2024) was the right and just thing to do. Adjusting our pay-scale has already paid dividends through our relative ease of filling several recent vacancies. I do continue worrying over the amazing cost increases we are experiencing in our pharmaceutical sector, which is partially driven by new drugs being approved at quite rapid rates.   As this weekend unfolded, it is great to see a period of prolonged warmth to refreshen our outlooks. Perhaps it will help curtail the abundance of flu we are dealing with and hasten folks’ recoveries. One of our Morris County native, Dr. Diane Hunt, returns to Council Grove this coming week for her first day of both Surgery and Clinic work at MCH. Feel free to schedule an appointment with her by calling the MCH Medical Clinic.   Thanks for each of you who daily deliver attentive patient care, and to all of you: do something worth remembering in the next two weeks. We should also give thanks to the Chiefs...they gave us another fun long-ride season - just a real tough-to-swallow ending. I do hope you all weathered the recent cold and snow as well as possible. Have a great two weeks leading into SPRING Break! Kevin Leeper, CEO

Happy American Heart Month! With heart disease still ranking as the number one killer of American men and women, it is an important time to know the signs of a heart attack as well as ways to prevent heart disease. Here are a few lifestyle changes that can help reduce your risk for heart disease.  1.  Don't smoke or use tobacco 2.  Get moving: Aim for at least 30 to 60 minutes of activity daily 3.  Eat a heart-healthy diet Two examples of heart-healthy food plans include the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan and the Mediterranean diet. 4.  Maintain a healthy weight Waist circumference can be a useful tool to measure how much belly fat you have. The risk of heart disease is higher if the waist measurement is greater than:    40 inches for men and 35 inches for women. 5.  Get quality sleep (at 7 hours a night) 6.  Manage stress 7.  Get regular health screening tests Important numbers to know-- Your blood pressure, Your cholesterol count, and your A1C .  If it's been a while since you've met with your doctor and done some testing, this month is a perfect reminder to get in for that checkup! We are thrilled to introduce Dr. Diane Hunt, a skilled General Surgeon, as the newest member of our team! Originally from Wilsey, Dr. Hunt graduated from Council Grove High School in 1985 before attending the University of Kansas. There, she majored in chemistry and even caught the attention of the Women’s Jayhawks basketball team, joining them for a memorable stint. After completing medical school at KU Med in Kansas City, Dr. Hunt spent two years in clinical training in Wichita before completing a five-year surgical residency. She has been in private practice with Kansas Surgical Consultants since 1999. Dr. Hunt will be seeing patients at MCH on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month, bringing extensive knowledge and experience to our surgery team. We are excited to have her with us! We are on our regular schedule for chair yoga at the senior centers. The Council Grove senior center  meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month at 11:00 am, and the White City senior center meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month at 10:30 am.  Everyone is welcome to join us for some great movement! In honor of Heart Health month, we will be talking about how to live A Heart Healthy Lifestyle. Learning more about the risk factors and how we can lower our risk for heart disease. Plus, we will enjoy a delicious lunch and great conversation. Lunch is $6 and you do need to reserve your spot for Wednesday, February 19th at 12:00 pm . You can call 620-767-6811 ext. 148 or email szeigler@mrcohosp.com  to reserve a spot and with any questions or a topic that you would like added to the schedule. If home maintenance has been difficult this winter, maybe it's time to check out the amenities that come with living in an Assisted Living apartment. We currently have three apartments available. You can call Laverne at 620-767-5600 to set up a time to take a tour and see if this home-style living is the right place for you or your loved one.

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community For Pay Period Ending February 1st As we head into Super Bowl weekend, I am sure there are some areawide faithful who will begin tailgating in the next twenty-four hours or so and bulldogging it right through to kickoff. I am not that faithful, but I will be thinking of threepeat multiple times until its either achieved (or sadly not). GO CHIEFS! MCH is still seeing some slower utilization of services that can be attributable to our recent cold and/or undesirable weather: Pulmonary Rehab for one. Other services are less desirable because of new year deductible statuses, which make you really need a service to be inclined to pay off the yearly startup patient obligation: Sleep Center and Pain Clinic areas for two. Otherwise, we are gaining back the green numbers that avoided us during the storm of a lifetime. A big THANKS is appropriate for our generous Community which responded with a great turnout to our year’s first Blood Drive on 2-3-2025! And thanks to the volunteers who make this every-other-month event, a success! Though our hospital does not require near all the blood that we collect in these drives, there is a large state-wide demand for these irreplaceable products, and the Blood Center is very grateful for Morris County’s contributions to the blood bank. Our Board has reviewed our first draft of a 2025 Budget, to which some tweaks are being made prior to releasing to managers for reviewing and helping to execute. Following our solid 2024, the plan is to prolong the momentum we gained. Thanks for each of you who daily deliver attentive patient care, and to all of you: do something worth remembering in the next two weeks – AND, again, GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!! Kevin Leeper, CEO

We are pleased to provide our patients with the opportunity to participate in Health Information Exchange (HIE). An HIE provides their participating providers access to health information regardless of where the patient receives care. These participating providers may connect to other participating providers electronic health records to view health information for patients enrolled in the network as they deem necessary. This helps a patient’s providers—primary care practitioners, specialists, hospitals, and clinics—to have ready access to patient health information. For example, if you go to an emergency room or clinic that participates in an HIE network, the healthcare providers would be able to access your health information to help make treatment decisions for you. The following information is made available to participating providers in an HIE: (1) records of allergies and drug reactions; (2) medication and immunization history; (3) transcribed diagnostic and treatment records; (4) procedure records; (5) problem lists and diagnoses; and (6) notes from the patient’s practitioners. Currently your health information is being sent to the KONZA Network HIE and effective February 1, 2025, your health information will be sent to the Commonwell Network. If you have questions, please contact the Business Office, HIM, or MCH Clinic to discuss

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community For Pay Period Ending January 18th Digging out from the big blast of nearly three weeks ago has certainly been a slow process with the continued low temps. The weatherman keeps promising a return to a normal winter by Sunday and everyone hopes he is right. People need their routine medical treatments and therapies, which have been logistically compromised for the start of this year. My guess is that business levels for everyone except the utility companies and road clearers is well below average over the past three weeks. Our one real blessing is that we are not located in the outer Los Angeles area. We all prefer our cold to their fiery heat, and our thoughts are indeed with those affected.   Staying inside during this pay period has given everyone ample time to reflect on our new Presidents’ inauguration as well as the start of our new State Congressional year here in Kansas. I am not sure everyone is optimistic about the new personnel in our nationwide offices, but I think everyone owes each of them a chance and some time to improve our current state!   With approval of our Board, MCH has embraced the opportunity of picking up some new and older equipment via the liquidation effort Emprise Bank is conducting with the former assets of Herington Hospital, Inc. Though a reminder of the very sad day for the Herington Community, it is nice that we, as a neighboring hospital, can put to good use several items purchased, primarily for the opening of an outpatient center in Hillsboro, KS. We are purchasing a couple new OR lights and an x-ray room, a large sterilizer, and several other smaller pieces of clinical equipment, at steeply discounted prices.   We have February start dates for our two new part time physicians: Dr. Tyler Stephenson, FP and Dr. Diane Hunt, Gen Surgery. As their schedules crystalize we will post their availabilities on our website. I want to thank and appreciate the great support given to a frozen pipe break at our Assisted Living Center, just yesterday. With an alert onsite staff and a few hospital people that hurried over around lunchtime, I think major damage was avoided. My hat is off to Laverne Young and her dedicated crew for responding so effectively!   I remind everyone to keep some work time attentive to knowing were our policies are located – an unannounced survey team is heading this way in the near future and will be asking random employees questions about our policies. Each of us practicing what our policies prescribe is the next thing they will want to validate. Also – remember what our #1 purpose for being here is – to assist our customers in the absolute way we would want to be treated. Thanks and have a great end to January – AND GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!! Kevin Leeper, CEO

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU!!!  We partnered with the Council Grove Area Foundation in November to help your donation dollars go further with a match--and the Match Month was a great success! With the added match dollars, our community donated $30,796.94 in November towards the purchase of equipment to expand our surgical services! Although we have a bit further to go, we have continued to receive donations and are excited to meet our goal. Thank you so much to those of you who contributed to this project and our community at large for all the support you continue to give to our local hospital! New this year, Kansas hospitals are required to ask questions about non-medical factors that can affect health outcomes. Upon admission MCH will be asking questions about Housing, Utilities, Food, Transportation, and Interpersonal Safety. The data collected will help determine what needs may exist in a community to improve health outcomes for all. With all of the ice and snow still on the ground, we want to remind you to be careful as you're out and about! Don't forget the penguin waddle. Bend your knees, point your feet out, and waddle like a penguin to keep from falling on the ice. Let's start the new year with a little chair yoga! The Council Grove Senior Center meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month from 11-11:30 am and the White City Senior Center meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month from 10:30-11:00 am.   THIS MONTH HAS A SCHEDULE CHANGE  --> The Council Grove Senior Center will meet on the 3rd and 5th Thursdays!  Everyone is welcome to join us for some great movement. Mark your February Calendars: Blood Drive  will be be on Monday, February 3rd from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. You can book an appointment online  here and use group code TPOU. Health   Wise Lunch Bunch meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month and we will be resuming our lunches on Wednesday, February 19th . We will be talking about "Living a Heart-Healthy Lifestyle" in honor of February being heart health month. I will send out a reminder next month, and you can call 620-767-6811 ext. 148 or email szeigler@mrcohosp.com  to reserve a spot. Morris County Assisted Living celebrated the holidays with a visit from Santa and rang in the New Year celebrating with friends and games. The residence currently has three apartments available for rent. If you know someone who would benefit from living in this warm family-style environment you can call Laverne at 620-767-5600 to schedule a tour and learn more.

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community For Pay Period Ending January 4th This pay period spanned both the end of 2024 and day one of a blizzard beyond what most of us have recently witnessed. Though I already know of some casualties, I hope this finds that most of you have weathered this event as best as possible. I feel as I write this that we have put the worst of it behind us, but please continue to be careful out there!   These types of extraordinary weather events always command extraordinary responses from those affected. I want to take a moment to thank the many MCH hands (and contracted hands) that persevered through this major storm to keep our healthcare services alive and available to those in need! We cancelled most elective services during the first couple of days, but we still needed many of you to be here for the few in definite need of us. Thank you so much for putting our patients ahead of your personal issues and for your efforts during the past week. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed!   A bright spot emerged just prior and even during the storm, as Dr. Diane Hunt (Senne) visited our facility on January 2nd and we have been in discussion ever since regarding her spending 2-3 days a month extending her surgical skills to Morris County Hospital. She will begin this service in mid to late February on Fridays. As many of you know her from her growing up in Morris County and being a CG Brave, I am sure you will be anxious to reacquaint. Through her guidance, we may well be bringing new services to our Community in 2025. More to come! And don’t forget that Dr. Tyler Stephenson will also be joining our team part time by the end of February!   I look forward to putting together some new targets and goals for 2025. Though we started the year with very little activity (note the few green metrics attained this pay period), I know we will be back on track in no time. I feel some real positive energy entering the New Year. Thanks again for all you do! Kevin Leeper, CEO