The monthly Geary Community Hospital Board meeting provided some interesting figures.

While surgery revenues were up for the hospital, overall patient totals are on a downward spiral.

Joesph Stratton, Geary Community Hospital CEO says that this isn’t unique to Geary County.

“We do struggle some with keeping our inpatient numbers up and that’s not unique to us for a market of our size, and the payers be they the Medicare and Medicaid, the comercial insurance companies [like] Blue Cross Blue Shield, don’t want to frankly have people in the hospitals and we just as sure [want them to] not be here as well, but it causes a hardship on us in some ways and that trend has been taking place over the last three years and while we’re concerned about it, we’re doing what we can to staff appropriately,” said Stratton.

Stratton noted that the marketing team for GCH has been working hard to let the community know that when there is a need for hospital services, it can be done locally at Geary Community Hospital.

“We market ourselves as best we can and we try to have an aggressive campaign with that; Nikki Davies in the public relations and marketing department has worked really hard at that the last couple of years. I think we have more exposure in that way – in a [more] positive way that we’ve ever head before – trying to get the word out there about the services, but it’s a work in progress,” said Stratton.

The hospital CEO also noted that the season may have an effect on the newest figures for overall patient totals – people generally aren’t as sick in the summer months as they may be in the winter months.