Ingram's March 2023

DESTINATION KANSAS REASONS TO CHOOSE

Healthcare and Community Services

THREE MAJOR MARKETS DOMINATE, BUT RURAL AREAS FIND QUALITY CARE AT THE READY.

From Kansas City in the northeast to Topeka and southwest to Wichita, Kansas is served by an axis of top-tier health-care delivery systems that put the vast major ity of the state’s 2.9 million residents less than an hour from a major medical center. Because of its position as a regional center for medical services and the pres ence of a large research university, the Kansas City region is a major health-care center for the area. With numerous ad ditional institutions just across the state line in Missouri, the medical needs of more than 1 million Kansans in that metropolitan area are well-served. That starts with The University of Kansas Health System, the biggest single acute-care hospital in the Kansas City market, with 969 licensed beds; the main medical center admits nearly twice as many patients each year as the second busiest hospital in the region. It’s also home to the University of Kansas Cancer Center, which last year achieved Com prehensive Cancer Center designation from the National Institutes of Health, one of just 53 nationwide. The health system also has a pres ence in Topeka with its St. Francis cam pus, having acquired the 378-bed hospi tal in 2017 in a partnership with Ardent Health. It provides comprehensive can cer, cardiology, orthopedic, diabetes, sur gical, and rehabilitation services for in patients and outpatients, as well as other programs to meet the health care needs of northeast Kansans. In Johnson County, major growth is visible at almost every medical facil ity, including AdventHealth’s Shawnee Mission Medical Center and HCA Mid west Health’s Menorah Medical Center. Both have undergone major expansions in recent years. Saint Luke’s South, home to the Gop pert Center for Breast Care, recently put the finishing touches on a five-year, $43 million expansion plan that included a new women’s health unit.

Towering Presence | Ascension Health’s Via Christi-St. Francis cam pus is the largest medical center in the state’s largest city, Wichita.

Olathe Medical Center, which re cently was merged into The University of Kansas Health System, is one of the largest hospital campuses in the county and is home to the Kansas Cardiovascu lar Center, The Birth Place and Women’s Health Center, the Kansas Joint Special- ty Center, and the Olathe Regional On cology Center. Overland Park Regional Medical Cen ter, Menorah’s sister ship in the HCA fleet, represents a fourth major medical center presence in the county. In south-central Kansas, Wichita dominates in the delivery of health-care services, drawing patients from through out the central and western portions of the state, nearby northern Oklahoma, and beyond. The market there rev- olves around two major players: Via Christi Health System and Wesley Med- ical Center. Via Christi, with more facilities, is the bigger of the two; it boasts a combined 1,250 acute-care beds. Wesley, owned by Nashville-based health-care giant HCA Inc., boasts 760 beds and 102 bassin- ets—more than 6,000 children take their first breath in Wesley’s neonatal ward ev ery year. And the sprawling Robert J. Dole VA Regional Medical Center treats veter ans from a large region between the mar kets of Kansas City and Oklahoma City.

Roughly 1,000 physicians practice in Wichita and the surrounding area, pro viding core care in the areas of family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, and psychiatry. In addition, the county has a strong medical society, with an estimated 90 percent member ship rate with the resident physician pop ulation. Southern Kansas, as well, benefits from the presence of a branch campus of the University of Kansas Medical School, which recently extended its course offerings to include four-year programs. Topeka is a major medical center for northeast Kansas, with two general and five specialized hospitals employ- ing more than 6,500 people. There, Stormont-Vail HealthCare comprises a 586-bed major regional medical center and a 150-member primary and spec- ialty physician clinic in the Cotton O’Neil Division. The system serves the region through its network of more than 20 care facilities and the Cotton O’Neil Cancer Center. Throughout the state, virtually each of the 102 other counties is served by a local hospital, with urgent-care clinics and rural physicians to help meet the less-than-acute-care needs of residents there.

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