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Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review For Pay Period Ending April 27th If European tradition marks May Day as the beginning of summer, then I am all in for that, and I am glad we are there. Other traditions have May 1st as a meaningful celebration for workers. And that certainly resonates for us in healthcare as our annual celebration commences in a few days with Hospital Week. So this week calls for a welcome to summer, and a nice green beginning, thanks to recent rains. And also a big Thank You for YOU. It has also been a good week in that we have heard back from our visiting physicians of last Sunday, and I think we did a good job in piquing their interest about our quaint little town and a nice hospital team. We must be patient as they visit other sites, but I do think we are still in the game! More to come as things evolve. Since my last report, our Board has approved the replacement of our patient call system / code blue system, as well as an enhancement to our digital security system, which will afford many new features for after-hour lockdown and surveillance abilities. We are very hopeful for the approval of our application for the annual Kansas Tax Exemption Program to help fund this rather expensive project. The Board also authorized our purchase of a new replacement Blood Analyzer for our Laboratory. We should all feel proud of our ability to stay abreast of new technologies that enables our hospital to stay ahead of the obsolescence curve. Recapitalization is a very important component for the health of Critical Access Hospitals! So thanks to our Board for recognizing such! For some reason, I feel compelled to remind everyone that inflation IS taking its toll on most facets of our economy…we all feel it at the grocery store and when we have appliances to buy, or tires, or drugs, or batteries, or shoes, and so on and so on. It is really impacting all businesses as well, as those same supplies, service contracts, insurance, and labor that must be purchased are costing us all much more than 2-3 years ago. Pressures on bottom lines have never felt more real…yet if we remain innovative and smart about how we go about shopping for values in our needed resources…then I think we can relieve the margin pressure a bit. But we must each be cognitive of deploying smart buying practices! We cannot afford to plan poorly, run out of things, and have to pay premiums for essential items. This is my lesson for the week – please plan ahead and use our ever ready tools (smart phones for instance) to find where to buy our resources as efficiently as we can! We still need to use our Purchasing Department to authorize our buying commitments, but we can all help them in finding the best ways to replenish our shelves, and help our dollars go further and keep what we charge for our services under wraps. I again give my special thanks to all of our caregivers who make our patient’s experiences here as good as they can be! And do have a great week! See you at our Post Derby Employee Party this Saturday Night!! Kevin Leeper, CEO

Continued Dedicated Service to Our Community Administrator’s Bi-Weekly Review For Pay Period Ending April 13th April has again brought the full-fledged aroma of burning Flint Hills pasture, followed up with the annual prayers for rain to green up everything to its expected glory. Nice to see the rain received this week, but keep it coming. This is National Laboratory Week, and as such we wish to give extra thanks and praise to our awesome Lab Team, whom I can attest gives great customer service each and every day to a large percentage of our overall clientele, (I know as I am within earshot of most of their outpatient encounters}. Thank You Lab Team!!! If you have not yet heard, our hospital applied for and was awarded participation in a select group of twenty Kansas hospitals who will be specially trained on the priorities being addressed by the 2024-25 survey teams. These teams are currently being hired by the Kansas Department of Health and Education, who is the overseeing body in charge of MC/MCD credentialing for the State of Kansas. As part of this team, we will be led by Kevin Kepley to serve as a mock surveyor of a couple other similar hospitals, and others in turn will be conducting a mock survey on our hospital. The intent is to facilitate our hospital’s survey preparedness in the best possible manner. KDHE has assured Kansas hospitals that a committed catch up effort is in place to get us all surveyed in the next year or two. I think through Chelsea Cowart’s Quality efforts, we have gained in several areas that will be surveyed. So thanks Chelsea, on your way out, and we welcome Lynette Pate to carry these efforts on seamlessly. You can see for the past couple weeks that our metrics in green have had a nice surge, and are outnumbering those in red by a nice margin. Also operationally, we have at last put together a solution for our commercially insured Convenient Care utilizers, by having their billed services be processed as intended; as an after hour Clinic service. With the help of GPHA, our Cerner support group, and our Blue Cross Blue Shield rep, we have retooled our process, and as of Monday this week we are trusting that patients will only be charged their copays and/or Clinic deductibles moving forward. We welcome feedback from those testing this new process. Special thanks to all of our caregivers who make our patient’s experiences here as good as they can be! And do have a great week! Kevin Leeper, CEO

April is National Stress Awareness Month! Here are a few tips to help ward off the negative impacts of stress: Take breaks from news stories: It’s good to be informed, but constant information about negative events can be upsetting. (Think about setting boundaries before this upcoming election!) Eat healthy. Have fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, and low-fat or no-fat dairy. Limit foods with unhealthy fats, salt, and added sugars. Cut back on processed foods and choose more whole foods! Get enough sleep. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day to help you sleep better. Adults need 7 or more hours per night. Sleep is what helps to reset our emotions and stabilize our hormones. Move more and sit less. Every little bit of physical activity helps. Start small and build up to 30 minutes a day. Rome wasn't built in a day--add a few more steps today than you had yesterday! Limit alcohol intake. Choose not to drink, or drink in moderation on days you drink alcohol. Moderation means having 2 drinks or less a day for men or 1 drink or less for women. Continue with regular health appointments, tests, screenings, and vaccinations. Talk to your doctor if you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious. They are here to help and can find you additional resources if needed. Make time to unwind. Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditate. Try to do some other activities and make time for the hobbies that you enjoy. Connect with others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling. Connect with your community-based or faith-based organizations. Spend some time outdoors.  Your mom was right--get outside! Research shows that being outside is good for us. Sunshine and fresh air can help our physical and mental health. We are having so much fun with chair yoga at the senior centers. If you haven't given it a try--now is the time! The Council Grove Senior Center meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month and the White City Senior Center meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month.   Everyone is welcome to join us for some great movement (and it's a great stress reliever too!) Can walking be a super power? Join us on April 17th to learn more about how walking can affect our mood levels, our pain levels, and our overall health!  We will also create a plan to get started--no matter where your fitness level is today. Let's Start a Heart-Healthy Walking Program! Lunch is $6 and you do need to reserve your spot. You can call 620-767-6811 ext. 148 or email szeigler@mrcohosp.com to reserve a spot. This month we welcome The 36-Hour Day Group. It is a support group for  caregivers who are caring for those with dementia. It will meet every Thursday from 1:00 -2:00 PM in our Hospital Chapel. The group discusses various topics from the book, "The 36-Hour Day". You can email Stacy with any questions you have, Join us for an open house this week, Friday, April 12th from 3:00-5:00 pm at our Chase County Clinic in Cottonwood Falls.  We will be celebrating the retirement of Christy Watts, wishing her well, and thanking her for years of service to our community.  All our welcome! Morris County Assisted Living is an important part of our community and provides excellent housing options for our seniors. We appreciate your referrals as we look to rent our last couple of renovated apartments and we are looking for a few more great neighbors to call this unique space home. Call 620-767-5600 to schedule a tour.

The first quarter 2024 is now history, as well as the last first quarter of the 21st century’s first quarter…does that get you thinking about how long ago the Y2K scare was, and how time is flying? Kind of like how all the Big 12 teams flew right out of everyone’s brackets in no time at all. So much for our thinking we were on top of the B-ball food chain. Oh well, next year will be here before you know it☺, and we can fall for their hype again. Our January / February surge of “across the board” activity has definitely paused for a breath of air. March has not held up to the early pace, which perhaps should be expected, but is somewhat disappointing, especially as it appears we will not top March 2023’s revenue number. Some departments like the Clinics and related Labs and Imaging services are still bumping the green numbers, but other areas are a bit shy of targets. Rural medicine is so reflective of the environment of which it is a part, and it is what makes it a captivating challenge. Weather dictates the pace of our County’s economy, which is now ramping up to full throttle in these warming climes. I am convinced health needs take back seats in times where other priorities prevail – as they right well should. In rural Kansas, we for the most part, aren’t just city folks who can plan their lives outside of the nuances of weather, living their lives each season much like the season before. Anyway – this is my cheap 2 cents reflection on why our rural practice of medicine is so different than medicine in urban areas. I am waiting on the summary of our Strategic Plan update which was discussed last week. That and the results coming this summer from a Community-wide Health Needs Assessment which is being conducted by a team out of Wichita State University. If you get a chance to complete one of their surveys (sometime in June we are anticipating), then I sure hope you will give it some earnest thought and complete their questions. You do have voices in what services we choose to offer. I hope everyone had a special Easter with friends and families and that we can all now help our kids finish their school years in a strong and purposeful manner. And feel free to share your harvest of morel mushrooms with us, just any old time. Special thanks to all of our caregivers who make our patient’s experiences here as good as they can be! And do have a great week!

Spring is definitely in the air with longer days of daylight ahead and, Spring Break, with its time-off-tug on a few of our staff and providers, is now in our review mirror. It was a quieter week, business wise during Spring Break, but not quite the lull we have experienced in the past. We enjoyed a nice flow of residents during our 3-D Mammo Open House last week and that new service has been greeted with a pent up demand wanting to utilize the better technology during its first couple weeks of being operational! Our other new service, Pulmonary Rehab has been very busy as well, and Vanessa has already reached her weekly visit targets after only a few weeks of operation. Another new patient service, this one being offered by our revenue cycle team and called AblePay, was introduced recently and has secured at least eight participants in its early going. You can learn more about this service on our website and I think it will be a beneficial program for lots of our patients as they deal with their coinsurance payment obligations. A busy week is ahead as we prepare for our monthly Board meeting, preceded this month with a review of our 2022-2024 Strategic Plan, which we conducted nearly three years ago – time certainly flies. We expect to fine tune some of the goals that may need to be redirected since lots has changed in our market over the last three years. That and we have four new Board members since conducting that latest Plan. We hope to have a good discussion. As I am sure many of you are enjoying the heating up of March Madness this weekend, I also remind you that coming up is Holy Week, and I hope you take some time to count the Blessings that our loving Lord has offered to us who follow Him. A big thanks to all who strive to make our Hospital remain the local place of choice for healthcare needs. Have a great week with all that is going on.

As spring is in the air (around here that occurs once Grove Gardens opens), we do know that winter will have another round or two with us, but the lengthening of daylight is certainly a welcome sight. Another welcome sight is March’s return of College Basketball’s Big Dance and the crack of Royal’s bats once again. And perhaps we can finally get and keep our cars clean for more than a few hours before the next salt splash. (At least I’m trying to be easy to please). It was also nice to see this week that the town of Council Grove has been nominated for the Top 10 Communities in the Midwest, competing for that distinction with twenty other communities. We can all vote once a day between now and April 1st, so please toot our horn and stack your votes. Go to: https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-small-town-in-the-midwest-2024/ to participate in this contest, and do it frequently!A thanks needs to go to our Chamber Director, Zoey Bond, for getting us prompted and directed for this nomination! Business remains steady for our various locations, and we are at least teasing most of our metrics’ higher 2024 targeted numbers. Our larger MCH focus is still really to help our patients understand and improve their health conditions, and support or encourage their efforts to live healthier lives. We are welcoming a few new employees this past week or two and saying goodbye to others who have found new opportunities. A more transient attitude seems to have been adopted by many in our post-pandemic labor environment. Spring break hits our Community next week, so I encourage travelers to be safe! On the following week I am happy to announce an Open House for our new 3-D Mammography service, as well as our new Pulmonary Rehab service, and we will show them to the public on March 20th, from 5:00 to 6:30PM. We really are indebted to or Morris County residents who pretty well funded the entire expenditure of the 3-D Unit, which has been serving patients for nearly a week now!! A big thanks to all who strive to make our Hospital remain the local place of choice for healthcare needs. And all – do check out our revamped website, still at mrcohosp.com