Read about how an innovative hospital executive turned a small Kansas town’s (Lakin) struggling hospital, Kearney County Hospital, into an institution that recruited enthusiastic young physicians, helped refugees and made money delivering babies.

From this Politico article:

“{Hospital} officials hired an innovative CEO who came up with a way to make their rural hospital appeal to talented young physicians who want to deliver babies in Third World countries. You can do that work right here in Kansas, Ben Anderson  {the new exec} told his new recruits, by serving immigrants and refugees. Once the new doctors arrived, Anderson applied for grants to upgrade the hospital’s equipment and fly in a specialist to see women with high-risk pregnancies. The skilled doctors and luxurious birthing suites attracted immigrants from neighboring Garden City and wealthier patients from out of town, and the baby boom they created padded the hospital’s bottom line. KCH went from delivering 187 babies in 2014 to 327 in 2017. In the span of five years, Anderson has turned the hospital into the county’s largest employer, with a profitable maternity ward that draws patients from as much as two hours away for its superior care. ‘I think it’s a huge success story,’ Kearny County Commissioner Shannon McCormick says. ‘When you’re alive and thriving and all your neighbors are not—you’re doing something good.”’

There are lessons here for troubled rural hospitals around America.

To read the piece, please hit this link.