Hospitals

[W. Gray]

Every county of the 105 in the state of Kansas, except one, has at least one hospital.

Elk County does not.

Chautauqua County has two hospitals--if the Cedar Vale hospital is still up and running.

[larryJ]

That is amazing to me.  Where do you go if there is a major emergency?  Didn't there used to be one there?  On second thought, when one of the guys I was bailing hay with fell under the wagon, we took him straight to a doctor.  I guess it is hard to comprehend as living in LA county with so many people necessitates many hospitals.  There are 4 major hospitals within ten miles of my house, one designated as a trauma center.  And their emergency rooms are crowded most of the time. 

Larryj

[W. Gray]

Most folks seem to be taken to Greenwood County Hospital in Eureka some 25-30 miles distant for at least the first stage of an emergency. If they cannot handle it, or after they try to stabilize, the patient is taken to Susan B. Allen Hospital in El Dorado, sixty miles from Howard, or to a Wichita hospital, ninety miles from Howard via Eureka.

Moline had a hospital in a doctor's large home many years ago that is now a museum. I do not believe Howard ever had a hospital, though.

There is a clinic on Wabash Street with daytime hours during some days of the week in Howard that might be run out of the Greenwood County Hospital but I think services are extremely limited.

The Greenwood County Hospital has 25 beds as does the Sedan Hospital and the Cedar Vale Hospital, which seems to be still running.

[Wilma]

Procedure or state law requires that in the case of an emergency, like a heart attack, the patient be taken to the nearest hospital.  That happens to be Eureka.  If they can't handle it, they do what they can and send the patient on.  In my case, they kept me stable until they could take me to St. Joseph's in Wichita.  I had wonderful care during all of the time in the Eureka Hospital and on the ambulance.  The girls were very efficient and discreet.  I got the feeling that they weren't sure that if I knew I was having a heart attack, that I would be able to handle it.  I suppose there are people that freak out when something like that happens to them.  They didn't know that I had known for some time that I was having the symptoms and when it happened, there was nothing I could do except be quiet and calm.  I wouldn't have had better care, or as good a care in Sedgwick County as I did from the girls out here.  Just one more reason I wanted to live here.

[sixdogsmom]

We do have great emergency care here. Very fast response time with well trained personell. We owe them a big thank you! I am in Moline, so most emergencies go to Sedan and then on to Bartlesville or Tulsa. Some emergencies call for helicopter from the interim hospital to a larger trauma center. One time, they flew Ted by small aircraft from Independence to Kansas City where his transplant team was. He would have gone by helicopter except the March wind was blowing very hard that day. In some ways, I think we have better medical care here than in a large city. Nearly all the local clinics will work someone in the schedule if they are having problems, you don't get that in the city.

[Diane Amberg]

There is plenty of good to say for small town hospitals. We have all kinds here and for some things I think the little places have the best care, but for a serious trauma, if you can get there within an hour, you can't beat a class I trauma center.

[pepelect]

There is a clinic on Wabash Street with daytime hours during some days of the week in Howard that might be run out of the Greenwood County Hospital but I think services are extremely limited.

Mercy hospital, Independence, had a satellite clinic for years in Howard.  The nuns obviously didn't like us and because of very bad management they pulled out and Greenwood county came in.  Their doctors used to rotate through daily.  We've had the PA's, Nurse practitioners, and finally Dr. ROB.     Howard has great service and I have yet seen issues that they can't handle.  If you need to be sent on to a more specialized facility they are more than helpful with that.  The thing I like about them is if you need help you get help.