Kansas Profile - Now That's Rural - Greg Unruh - Community HealthCare System

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

“The doctor is in.”  One doesn’t expect to hear that statement at 10 o’clock at night, other than at the emergency room. But today we’ll meet a regional health care organization that is working at keeping patients first – even to the point of scheduling medical appointments for the patients’ convenience early and late in the day.

Greg Unruh is the CEO of Community HealthCare System in Onaga, Kansas. He and Marcia Walsh, chief operating officer, give leadership to this remarkable regional health care system. Greg ran a hospital in western Kansas before coming to Onaga in 2005. He says, “The system wasn’t built by me so I don’t deserve credit for building it, but I’m a strong believer in what it has accomplished.”

Onaga has had a hospital for many years. By the mid 1980s, many rural hospitals were closing. Greg says that hospital leaders in Onaga analyzed where their patients were coming from, located clinics in those towns, and used the clinics as bases to offer a gradually expanding array of services.

Greg describes it as a culture of servantship. He says, “The physicians are patient-focused, and the organization in turn, supports the physicians in fostering strong patient relationships.” For example, the conclusion was that it made more sense for one doctor to travel rather than having 30 patients make the same trip.

So the system developed into an organization that had medical providers at locations in several communities in the region. This enables them to share the cost of modern equipment and physicians. Greg says, “There’s no way a hospital like Onaga as a free-standing facility could afford the cost of modern radiology and imaging equipment by itself.”

Today, Community HealthCare System has clinics in St. Mary’s and Holton besides Onaga itself, plus such rural towns as Frankfort, population 839, and Centralia, population 518. Now, that’s rural.

Not only does this service help rural residents, it has also helped stimulate growth.  Hospital COO Marcia Walsh points out that total admissions have gone from 429 in 1989 to 1,332 in 2006. Outpatient visits have grown from 14,000 to more than 43,000.

While many rural communities struggle to retain just one physician, Community HealthCare System employs 12 physicians, 16 mid-level practitioners, and a total of 450 employees system-wide. Other rural communities fight to maintain the basic health care safety net, but Community HealthCare System provides an expanding range of services, including obstetrics, pediatrics, family care, surgery, over a dozen specialty services, home health, assisted care and long term care.

Greg says, “Here we offer services, literally, from the cradle to the grave.” That ranges from the birthing center to end-of-life care. And to help make sure that the end-of-life care comes a little later, Onaga also offers a state-of-the-art fitness center and a weight-loss and health program called LEAN – Lifestyle Exercise and Nutrition.

One example of patient-focused care is found in Holton, where many residents commute to work in Topeka. For them, it is a challenge to schedule routine medical appointments during the business day. So the Community HealthCare System clinic in Holton is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. That means I could schedule a routine checkup at 10 o’clock at night, for example, and not have to miss work or take vacation. In fact, I could still make my kid’s ballgame.

Greg says, “The desire of the organization is to create opportunities for people to receive health care in a way that’s appropriate for them.”

For more information, go to www.chcs-ks.org.

“The doctor is in.” No, I don’t expect to hear that statement at 10 o’clock at night, but the Community HealthCare System is making it possible for more people in more communities to have more access to a health care provider. We commend Greg Unruh, Marcia Walsh, and all those involved with Community HealthCare System of Onaga for making a difference with their innovative way of serving patients and reaching out to other communities. Working together regionally benefits the communities and ultimately helps the doctors out.

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The mission of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development is to enhance rural development by helping rural people help themselves. The Kansas Profile radio series and columns are produced with assistance from the K-State Research and Extension Department of Communications News Unit. A photo of Ron Wilson is available at  http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/RonWilson.htm.  Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/huckboyd/.



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