It is no secret that rural healthcare nationwide is struggling. A 2019 Navigant study showed that nearly 30% of rural hospitals in Kansas are at high financial risk for closure. The affiliation of Hiawatha Community Hospital with Amberwell Health positions local healthcare in northeast Kansas to thrive. The affiliation enables both organizations to invest in providing more care and services within the communities, as well as invest in people, equipment, and facilities to evolve with the rapidly advancing healthcare field.
One of the consistent suggestions of the Hiawatha community for the past few years has been that Hiawatha Community Hospital should affiliate or have oversight by another organization in order to improve organizational performance. Once the board began strategic discussions around the need to affiliate, focus turned to affiliation with another critical access hospital to develop a CAH system model.
Amberwell Health operates the third largest critical access hospital in Kansas and is a stable, high performing CAH. Hiawatha had already been working collaboratively with Amberwell prior to the affiliation and both organizations realized the benefits that the closer affiliation will bring. In addition to sharing knowledge and resources, the affiliation brings a capital investment to Hiawatha to help with the improvement and expansion of surgical services.
Building a strong rural healthcare system allows us to take advantage of the positive aspects of a collaborative healthcare system while also staying true to our roots and not losing our passion for our communities and the vital role we play in the lives of our patients and their families.
Questions and Answers
What is the impact of the affiliation?
Operational – The affiliation will help with improving the number of patients that receive care within each entity through expansion of services. Increased patient volume is very helpful in improving operational performance of a hospital.
People – Affiliating to become an integrated, supportive healthcare system creates interest for potential new employees and providers, helping attract high performing talent to our organization, and retention of our current employees.
Quality – The affiliation will allow the system to develop subject matter experts and best practices that can move across the system and improve the quality of care for all our communities.
Patient Care – The affiliation will allow for the expansion of services provided locally which allows patients to continue to find local care.
Community – Each hospital will continue to operate their respective Foundations. The donations will be kept locally. Philanthropy is one of the important parts of helping our healthcare remain local.
How will each organization be structured after the affiliation?
Amberwell Health is the name of the affiliated organization. Jeff Perry will serve as the Amberwell Health system CEO and will also continue to be the CEO of Amberwell Atchison. John Broberg will continue to be the CEO of the Hiawatha organization and will report to the Hiawatha Board and to Jeff Perry as the system CEO.
Will Hiawatha Community Hospital be renamed?
In order to identify the location as an affiliate of the Amberwell Health system, Hiawatha Community Hospital will be rebranded within the next few months as “Amberwell Hiawatha”. In addition, Highland Clinic will be rebranded as “Amberwell Highland Clinic”.
Amberwell Health system locations are as follows:
- Amberwell Atchison
- Amberwell Eighth Street Clinic
- Amberwell Hiawatha
- Amberwell Highland Clinic
- Amberwell Horton Clinic
- Amberwell Leavenworth Clinic
- Amberwell Troy Clinic
