Lessons in wellness from Rooks County

Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending the dedication of the new Rooks County Health Center in Plainville.

It was a wonderful occasion for the people of Rooks County; a community vision they worked hard to make a reality.

The original hospital was built in 1955 and for its era, was a state-of-the-art facility. It was meant to serve a growing community, who valued life in a rural setting and were finding new prosperity in the surrounding oil fields and fertile farm land.

In its half century of serving the people of Rooks County, 3,300 new Kansans were born under its roof; each year more than 30,000 people benefited from its health services.

But fifty years is a long time, and as the community outgrew the building that had kept and cared for them over the years, the need for a new facility became a priority for the citizens of Rooks.

Two years ago, the voters of the county overwhelming approved bonds for a new hospital; and to date, more than $1.5 million in private contributions have been donated to the capital campaign.

Breaking ground in December of 2006, the new facility looks like Rooks County; modeled after the surrounding farms and rural towns. The health facility has lots of light and soothing colors and natural materials – a style that tells patients this is be a place for wellness instead of illness.

This sort of local dedication and community involvement is the foundation on which this state and nation will fix our health care system.

Just as the citizens of Rooks County have, we need our national leaders to view hospitals and clinics as places not just to treat disease, but to maintain wellness and promote healthy living. We need them to realize that the latest and greatest technologies not only provide the best cures, but in doing so can rid the system of red tape, redundancies and errors that drive up costs.

Perhaps our national leaders should take a look at the solutions found right here in Rooks County, Kansas.