Sports: Cain hopes to stay on top of sports world See B1
See, Hear Iola
10 a.m. Friday, Riverside Park
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
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Thursday, February 25, 2016
Iola City Council to talk incentives By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Team Ryker Scores of Iola Middle School students and staffers donned shirts of black, gold or other variations in honor of IMS sixthgrader Ryker Curry, who was scheduled to undergo heart surgery today. Curry, 12, was diagnosed last week with a congenital heart defect. The black and gold reflect his devotion to Wichita State University athletics.
Iola City Council members will gather for a special meeting at 5:15 p.m. Monday to discuss an economic development request. While the meeting is open to the public, most of the discussion — perhaps all of it — will be in a private session, because of potential trade secrets involving the parties. The meeting is at the New Community Building in Riverside Park. The conversation will include Iola’s philosophy regarding economic incentives to prospective business enterprises. In announcing the upcoming meeting, City Administrator Carl Slaugh told Council members at their meeting earlier this week that economic incentives “carry a cost.” Developing virgin land requires increased city services, Slaugh said, in terms of new infrastructure, and following that line of thought, more territory for police to patrol, See CITY | Page A5
REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Hospital looks to grow specialties By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
As a way to extend medical services to the area, the hospital is looking to expand the kinds of specialists it provides, said Tony Thompson, executive director of Allen County Regional Hospital. “We want to grow this list of specialists,” he said at Tuesday night’s meeting of hospital trustees. A rheumatologist — someone who treats the ailments of bones, joints and muscles — is due to join the rotating schedules soon, Thompson Tony said. Other specialists provided at Thompson ACRH include those who treat cardiology, neurology, oncology, podiatry, urology, pulmonology, allergies, and orthopedics. Thompson said the hospital is also exploring establishing a clinical presence is Humboldt, Moran and Yates Center. The decision will be determined by the ability of securing medical providers and a viable clientele to support the operations. Thompson is on the hunt for physicians to settle in Allen County. An OB/GYN — someone who delivers babies and treats female-related health issues — is top of the list. Trustee Patti Boyd said the committee investigating the future of a medical office building being built on hospital grounds is pursuing possible tenants. “Our goal is to make contact with all local [medical] providers,” to sound them out on their hopes and dreams, she said. Until commitments can be made, architectural plans are premature, Boyd said.
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 82
Big challenges await rural health effort By JIM MCLEAN KHI News Service
Members of Gov. Sam Brownback’s Rural Health Working Group have their work cut out for them. Representatives of the state’s hospitals and doctors painted a sobering picture of the problems facing rural providers at the group’s first meeting Tuesday evening.
Melissa Hungerford, a vice president at the Kansas Hospital Association, briefed the working group on a project she has been leading aimed at developing a more sustainable rural health care facility. Though the model isn’t fully developed, Hungerford said the smaller hybrid facilities would offer a more limited range of services than the critical access hospitals, which now serve many rural Kansas communities.
“We can’t keep going the way we’re going without kind of changing the whole system and looking at the system as a whole,” Hungerford said. She said the search for a new rural health care delivery model is being driven by a combination of factors, which include the low use of existing facilities, declining Medicare reimbursements and the See HEALTH | Page A5
Concussion bill survives second round in House By ALLISON KILE KHI News Service
A bill expanding the list of medical professionals who can clear high school athletes for play after a concussion is headed to the Kansas Senate after passing the House this week. But the close vote and reservations that some House members expressed about the bill suggest it may not sail through. One day after passing House Bill 2578 by a 73-51 tally, House members took the rare step of reconsidering their vote
on the measure that would allow chiropractors to clear athletes. The House voted again Tuesday after Rep. Rick Billinger, a Goodland Republican, made a motion to reconsider so he
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” — Socrates 75 Cents
could change his “yea” vote to “nay.” Billinger said the specialty of the doctor who treats concussions is important in getting high-quality care. “If one of my children or grandchildren had heart problems, I’d go to a cardiologist. That’s where I’d take them,” Billinger said. “If they had cancer, I’d take them to the oncologist. I think if they had a head injury, they ought to go see a neurologist. I just think we should be looking at specialty See BILL | Page A5
Hi: 45 Lo: 25 Iola, KS