Great Plains of Cheyenne County

Cheyenne County hospital (cch) is a critical access, level iv trauma, 16 bed hospital providing emergency, acute and swing bed care to Cheyenne County and surrounding areas; it employs two full time physicians, three nurse practitioners (aprn's), one physician assistant (pa-c), 18 registered nurses (rn/prn), a certified registered nurse anesthetists (crna), and other allied health professionals. Cheyenne County hospital's aim is to provide safe, high quality, team based healthcare to Cheyenne County, Kansas and surrounding areas. Cch is a critical access hospital serving a frontier area population (population density of 2.70) and has been designated as a medically underserved area since 2005. We provide a variety of care including primary care in two rural health clinics, inpatient care (including acute care), observation, swing bed, intermediate swing bed services and obstetrics. In addition, we provide a variety of outpatient and diagnostic procedures and have general surgery performed onsite. We provide 24/7 coverage of an emergency room that is staffed with our own providers. Cheyenne County hospital's most expensive entities in 2023 included our pharmacy with $3,964,067 total expenses. of this, $3,208,391 was 340b expenses. Our nursing department with $2,170,688 in expenses, which includes $712k for contract nurses. The rural health clinic with $1688,422 in expenses which includes $39kk for contract providers to cover the rhc. Our success by way of these capacities is reflected in the number of patients served, as highlighted below, and the innovative ways with which we continue to find new ways to meet the evolving needs of our patients. Pharmacy pharmacy was the largest expense for 2023 with $3,208,391 total expenses. of this, $3,208,391 was 340b expenses. Nursing: the second largest expense by department for 2023 was nursing. Not only in service to the more than 199 acute inpatients, 64 swing bed admissions, and 40 obstetric admissions in 2023, nursing was instrumental in overseeing key facility services such as hospital pharmacy (which included the cost saving 340b program), infection control, case management, utilization review, education and other outpatient services. Nursing was a key voice on the County's rural healthcare task force whose major achievement was leveraging federal and private grant dollars to establish a program by which routine and affordable in-home visits can be extended to Cheyenne County's most vulnerable chronically ill patients. Additionally, the nursing department staffed cch's 24-hour emergency room, providing compassionate care to the more than 985 patients presenting to the er in 2023 regardless of their ability to pay. In sum, as the primary front line staff for the facility, the nursing department was essential to cch's ability to extend quality care to approximately 2,700 residents of Cheyenne County. Rural health clinic: our rural health clinic (rhc) is designated as a safety net clinic by the state of Kansas. The clinic served 10,756 patient visits in 2023, focusing on activities concerned with prevention and treatment of common medical problems in an outpatient setting. Care is delivered by primary care practitioners to individuals who present for service regardless of their ability to pay. Expense is often a barrier to care in our community and for that reason the rural health clinic remains responsive to a population often with fixed incomes. In 2023, the rhc was awarded a primary care clinic grant of $101,539. This critical funding assisted the clinic in providing access to quality, community-based healthcare, reducing health disparities for our County's underserved populations, and providing access to prescription drugs for patients that could not otherwise afford medication. As evidence of our commitment to provide quality healthcare to our patient base, in june of 2015 the cch rural health clinic achieved a level iii certification as a patient centered medical home (pcmh) from the national committee for quality assurance. Unquestionably, this national accreditation speaks to the commitment of our providers and staff to deliver outstanding medical attention to our patients and the significant process improvements induced by the endeavor is evidence of the clinic's commitment to overcoming traditional rural healthcare barriers.