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History Complicating Efforts to Preserve Health Care in Kansas County

Community hospital in Harper, Kansas (Photo by Bryan Thompson)
Community hospital in Harper, Kansas (Photo by Bryan Thompson)

People who live in small towns across Kansas are struggling to save institutions that in their minds define their communities. Schools are often at the heart of these efforts. But recent changes in the health care system are making it increasingly difficult for rural hospitals to make ends meet. That’s true of both hospitals in Harper County, located along the Oklahoma border southwest of Wichita. And as Heartland Health Monitor's Bryan Thompson reports, a longstanding rivalry is complicating efforts to find a solution.


Learn more about this story by clicking here.

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Heartland Health Monitor is a collaborative health reporting project among public media news outlets in the Midwest, including Kansas Public Radio, KCUR Radio, KCPT TV and the KHI News Service.

Bryan Thompson has been KPR's Health Reporter since 2000. He's a lifelong Kansan, and a graduate of Wichita State University. He's been involved in radio news longer than he'd care to admit, serving as news director at stations in El Dorado, Liberal, and Salina before joining KPR. He and his wife, Cindy, are the parents of six outstanding children--one of whom now looks down on them from above. In his spare time, Bryan enjoys music and sports.