Ingram's March 2023

Joel Phelps Salina Regional Health Center, Salina No one needs to tell Joel Phelps about the challenges confronting hospitals today, especially those in parts of Kansas well outside the health-care centers of Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita. Even in Salina, the state’s 10th-largest city, scale matters. That’s one reason Joel

Patrick Penn Kansas House of Representatives, Wichita

Patrick Penn was not a silver-spooner as a kid, a period in his life marked by abuse and neglect before he made his way to foster care. There, he says, “I learned the importance of faith, family, and hard work.” He put those values to work right out of high school, joining the Army and

Phelps, president and CEO of Salina Regional Health Center, worked to bring Abilene Memorial Health System into its fold in 2021, even when his own organization was still dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic peak caseload. “If you are that patient, and one day we are all going to be that, if you present as a patient in Abilene or a patient in Salina, that common medical record is going to allow that care to be seamless and allow that care to be completely coordinated and provides us a really good chance to improve health,” he said at the announcement ceremony. “We are totally excited about that.” Today, the mother ship counts 393 licensed beds among its assets and more than 1,300 employees serving a wide swath of north-central Kansas. SRHC is easily one of the city’s biggest employers, but its influence extends across 13 other counties with a combined population of more than 170,000. Saline County, in fact, accounts for only 60 percent of the system’s patient load. They are served by 135 staff physicians who are able to deliver many of the services that rural Kansans must often drive far to obtain, including cardiovascular surgery, comprehensive oncology care, women’s health care, pediatrics, and more.

serving multiple tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan and served with distinction: Before retiring at the rank of captain, he earned the Meritorious Service Medal and the Combat Action Badge. He also leveraged his service to earn a degree in criminology from Colorado State University, then a master’s in applied information technology from George Mason University’s School of Engineering. The father of four found a new calling in 2020, earning a seat in the Kansas House representing northeast Wichita and driven by a desire, he says, “to ensure that all Kansas children, regardless of their upbring and ZIP code, would have access to a quality education and the same opportunities that he did.” In Topeka, he has sponsored and supported measures to create an office of the child advocate, overseeing the interests of children in the state’s foster care system, supports Wichita’s vital aviation sector, and prohibiting banks, trust companies, credit unions, and other business entities from discriminating based on certain subjective or arbitrary factors. He still finds room within that schedule to serve as a Sunday school teacher and volunteer at his church.

Deb Pochop Rawlins County Dental Clinic, Atwood With a career that includes experience in the physical therapy, pharmacy, and even massage industries, Deb Pochop still wasn’t quite ready for her new role in dentistry. “It seemed like a good fit for my skill set, and I already understood many facets

Krista Postai Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, Pittsburg Krista Postai puts new meaning to the term “native Kansan.” Not only was she born in Pittsburg’s Mt. Carmel Hospital, but her great-great-grandparents first came to the area in the late 1800s by covered wagon. Now, as CEO of Community Health Center of Southeast

of the clinic,” she said. “In reality, I had so much to learn!” The CEO of Rawlins County Dental Clinic has more than 30 years of health-care and management experience but has found a new sense of fulfillment working for the non-profit safety-net clinic, which serves all patients regardless of ability to pay—typically about 2,000 unduplicated patients in more than 8,000 visits each year. In addition to the physical clinic in Atwood, a mobile clinic visits schools, skilled nursing facilities, and developmentally disabled centers—61 different sites in all. It’s an achievement Pochop credits to the team and a unique brand of work ethic found in Rawlins County: “The team here is the best there is, and their hearts are big! The more they tell us that it cannot be done, the harder we work.” Originally from Nebraska, Pochop and her husband have two married children and two grandchildren, and she’s always proud to show off her corner of the state. “It takes a village to raise a child, and this is the village we would choose again and again if given the opportunity.”

Kansas, her commitment to her home state continues. The non profit and federally qualified health center provides affordable care—including medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, and more—to more than 70,000 patients each year. Postai is committed to improving her community one patient at a time. “Not only is southeast Kansas the most economically challenged region of the state, it also is the least healthy—and always has been,” she said. “The key to our growth is believing if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. We’re determined to reverse the negative trend.” She’s doing that by expanding walk-in care to reduce unnecessary emergency visits, as well as diagnostic capacity by adding mammography and CT in two of her largest clinics. Now with 15 sites in both Kansas and Oklahoma, the center also has both a family practice residency with KU and a pediatric dental residency with NYU. Growing from a double-wide trailer to the largest community health center in the state didn’t come easily, she said, but has been worth the work. “We’ve always believed that mission trumps margin, and if you do the right thing, the money will follow—and it always has.”

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