Construction on a new $8.2 million hospital is scheduled to begin early next year in this small, south-central Kansas community.
The project is in response to conditions common in many parts of rural Kansas where an increasingly aging population often is treated in outdated hospital facilities.
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Many rural hospitals were built with Hill-Burton Act funds in the 1940s and ’50s, said Melissa Hungerford of the Kansas Hospital Association.
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Medicine Lodge is renovating half of the existing 36,000 square feet and adding on 17,000 square feet. Some of the new space is aimed at attracting part-time specialists who keep multiple offices around the region.
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Funding for the construction in both Medicine Lodge and Kiowa came, in part, from a $10 million bond approved by Barber County in 2011. About $4 million was slated for Kiowa, and about $6 million for Medicine Lodge. The hospitals are each owned and operated by their respective municipalities, and the bond marks the first funding to come from the county for the hospitals…
“Before that, the hospitals weren’t supported by the whole county, they were just supported by their respective districts. …
(Read more at the Gardner News)