HOISINGTON Health care is a community undertaking: local nurses and local doctors tending to friends, family, and neighbors.  Clara Barton Hospital has taken the community approach again.
The hospital is expanding in response to growth in patient treatments and a desire to lower its operating costs. Therapy Services at the Hospital increased over 17 percent in 2013, and the facility it currently resides in is too small to accommodate continuing growth. By bringing laundry in-house, the hospital will save approximately $250,000 a year, even with the addition of more staff to handle to cleaning, folding, storage, and quality control of the 2,000 lbs. of linens used by the hospital each week.
In building the addition to house an expanded Therapy Services department and new laundry facility, the hospital looks to community businesses to assist in completing the dream.
“This expansion is not only going to help our community by allowing us to serve more patients, but also allows us to subcontract our local businesses to do a lot of the work,” reports Curt Colson, president and chief executive officer. “It’s great to see so many faces we know helping us in this big step into the future.”
The hospital accepted the bid from Hutton Construction, out of Wichita, to be the contractor on the addition. With the acceptance, the hospital requested that bids to be open and subcontracted to local businesses within Barton County.
Local businesses working on the project include: A & F Enterprises Inc., of Hoisington; Concrete Service Co. Inc., JimLo Glass Center Inc., Pryor Automatic Fire Sprinkler, Stone Sand Company, Inc., all of Great Bend; and Hayne Electric Inc., of Larned. Industry specialists from Hays, Salina and Hutchinson are also being subcontracted for projects, with businesses from Wichita completing the list.
Several materials used are from local businesses, as well. Kansas Brick & Tile Inc., of Hoisington, delivered over 36,225 bricks, matching the current hospital façade, for the project, which are currently being laid.
The approximate cost of the project is $1.4 million. As a critical access, non-profit, private hospital, Clara Barton will use a combination of grants, tax credits, and a capital campaign to fund the project. The “Complete the Dream… Continue the Vision” campaign will be educating the public of the importance of the community hospital and the vitality of supporting it through the next five years. As a private organization, the hospital has saved Hoisington, and Barton County, an estimated $3 million in community taxes, over the last five years, meaning that it does not receive a benefit by local taxes.
Officials said the hospital and its foundation look forward to sharing results and other great news on the campaign and expansion project in the future. As they progress into the “public” portion of the campaign, they will be reaching out to the community for support.
Clara Barton Hospital is a Critical Access Hospital and Skilled Swing Bed Facility, located in Hoisington. While operating on the cutting edge of medical technology, Clara Barton provides diagnostic and treatment services to patients in and around Barton County through Clara Barton Hospital, Clara Barton Medical Clinic, Russell Family Medical Care, Clara Barton Surgical Services, Clara Barton Specialty Outreach Clinic, and Clara Barton Surgical Services-Orthopedics.