NORTON, Kan. – Hospitals in Kansas and across the U.S. are celebrating National Hospital Week, May 9-15. The theme for National Hospital Week 2021 is “Inspiring Hope through Healing.” Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, this important week provides the opportunity to highlight hospitals, health systems and health care workers and the innovative ways they are supporting the needs of their community members. National Hospital Week has been celebrated the first full week in May for 100 years, since 1921.
Norton County Hospital is a 25-bed critical access hospital and Level IV trauma center, has the Norton Medical Clinic and has a foundation, the Norton Regional Health Foundation. The hospital and its clinic currently staff about 130 employees, including three physicians, one nurse practitioner, two physician assistants and one nurse anesthetist. The hospital is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, and it offers many levels of inpatient care, a wide range of outpatient services and several visiting physician specialty clinics.
Not only do Kansas hospitals, like Norton County Hospital, keep communities healthy, strong and vibrant, hospitals also benefit the financial health of the state. According to a January 2021 report, “The Importance of the Health Care Sector to the Kansas Economy,” Kansas hospitals employ nearly 100,000 people and generate $7.5 billion in direct total income. Kansas hospitals support the creation of additional jobs in other business and industry and have a total employment impact of approximately 195,700 jobs. For every one dollar of income generated in the hospital sector, another 64 cents is generated in other businesses and industries in the state’s economy; thus, Kansas hospitals have an estimated total impact on income throughout all business and industry of $12.3 billion.
Take this year’s National Hospital Week as an opportunity to thank all of the dedicated individuals – physicians, nurses, therapists, engineers, food service workers, administrators and so many more – for their contributions.
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