Community Profile — wichita
Kansas, Land of Oz
Thanks to the applied genius of such early inventors/entrepreneurs as Lloyd
Stearman, Walter Beech, and Clyde Cessna, Wichita is now known as the Air
Capital of America. It was the major manufacturer of World War II planes. Local
history aficionado Frank Chappell says, “Almost every pilot at some time during the war was in a Wichita-made plane.” Older Wichitans remember scores of warplanes filling the skies almost daily on
their way to bases and battlefronts.
Today, as much as 70 percent of U.S. general aviation aircraft is produced at
four major Wichita plants. A fifth, Airbus North America Engineering, supplies
technical support with 200 engineers. Hundreds of aircraft subcontractors and
suppliers swell the work force, making it the largest in the world in aerospace
manufacturing. The state-of-the-art National Institute for Aviation Research,
housed at WSU, works closely with the industry. Since 1985, its staff has led
the way in dramatic improvements in plane performance, technology, and safety.
Besides all of the above, Wichita is home to McConnell Air Force Base, whose
primary mission is global air refueling.
Aside from its aviation fame, the city is home to the giant Koch Industries,
which recently surpassed Cargill Corporation as America’s largest privately held company. Interestingly, the now second-place entity
also has a large presence in the city with its Cargill Meat Solutions Corp.
A place to find a heart
The old cowboys would be even more astounded to learn that, with the quality of
medical care now available in the old cow town, they could well have survived
some of the common ailments of their time.
Case in point: the CyberKnife® radiosurgery system at Via Christi Regional Medical Center. Hospital literature
cites it as “cutting-edge care,” in which a computer-controlled radiation beam targets tumors, often in
previously unreachable places. It does so with pinpoint accuracy and fewer
treatments than other devices, all in a setting that doesn’t require patient restraint with metal halos. The beam from a robotic arm
adjusts instantly to any patient movement. Through the Wichita Community
Clinical Oncology Program, cancer patients can participate in many of the same
trials being conducted at the nation’s top research facilities.
Via Christi, which pioneered open-heart surgery in the region, is the state’s largest heart program and the only Kansas hospital that performs heart
transplants. Since 1986, 170 patients have received new hearts there, says
public relations director Roz Hutchinson. She proudly mentions that one of the
first seven patients recently celebrated her 20th anniversary with her new
heart.
Via Christi’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center serves some 1,100 epileptic patients from 80
Kansas and northern Oklahoma counties. “It’s one reason people move to Wichita, particularly if they have kids with
epilepsy,” Hutchinson says. The Center is one arm of Via Christi’s state-of-the-art Neuroscience Center, which includes an ICU exclusive to
brain, spine, peripheral nerve, and muscle disorders. An acute-response stroke
team and a primary stroke center have received top quality rankings.
There are numerous other highly advanced treatment areas. “We tend to be a little self-effacing about our (hospital) community, so
sometimes people are surprised that we have such special treatments. It’s like the Wizard of Oz. Click your little red heels and you’re here,” says Hutchinson.
Many of its services, as well as those of Wesley Medical Center, Wichita’s other large hospital complex, are enhanced by association with the University
of Kansas Medical School-Wichita. After two years at the KU Medical School in
Kansas City, KS, students transfer to KU-Wichita for two years for a total
regimen of hands-on bedside training. Approximately half of the graduates stay
in Kansas.
In February, Physicians Practice magazine cited Kansas as one of the five most
physician-friendly states, based on physician-patient ratios, reimbursement,
malpractice suit outcomes, cost of living, and the size of reimbursement rates
compared to cost of living. According to writer Bob Keaveney, “The big flat, open spaces of America’s Midwest outshine the glitzier coastal states as attractive places to practice
medicine. (Kansas is a place) where doctors can still be doctors and make a
living, too.” But, he added, “the physicians’ favorite thing about Kansas is Kansas itself.”
Via Christi began as two hospitals—St. Joseph and St. Francis—each founded by an order of nuns in Wichita’s early days. The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, arriving from Rome in 1889,
took charge of St. Francis Hospital, a three-story house with 12 beds. In 1925,
the Wichita branch of the Sisters of St. Joseph acquired Wichita Hospital,
building a 250-bed hospital in 1941, followed by a seven-story medical tower in
1976. The founding groups consolidated their health-care ministries in 1995 to
form what is now the Via Christi Health Network, which includes a behavioral
health campus, various clinics and diagnostic centers, home health care, and a
durable medical equipment provider.
Wesley Medical Center, founded by a regional Methodist Church Organization in
1912, became part of HCA in 1985 and now provides traditional services and
incorporates a critical care building with three adult ICUs, a family medicine
clinic, a women’s hospital and a birth care center. More babies are born there (some 6,000 in
2006) than in any other hospital in a 13-state region, according to Helen
Thomas, the marketing, public relations, and senior services director. A strong
adjunct is the area’s most experienced NICU staff, which has been a forerunner in safety measures
only recently being adopted by many NICU facilities. For instance, the use of
surfactant to treat premature infants’ lungs was pioneered at Wesley. Besides the NICU, Wesley also provides advanced
care for high-risk pregnancies and a pediatric ICU.
The medical center is home to a Level One Trauma Center, staffed by
board-certified surgeons in-house 24 hours a day. With more than 72,000 visits
a year, the emergency department is the busiest in Kansas, according to Thomas,
and enjoys the services an interventional neuroradiologist, one of the few in
the US, who uses brain catheters to stop strokes in progress. The newest
addition is a freestanding emergency and diagnostic center 12 miles from the
main campus.
Living in the land of Oz
You could say the hospitals’ innovative energy follows on the heels of long-entrenched entrepreneurism in
Wichita. Today’s massive aircraft industry is the latest but not the first proof of this. In
1889, Albert A. Hyde was busy mixing ingredients that finally congealed into
Mentholatum, still used as an analgesic, for perfumes and as a mint flavoring.
A few years later, W.C. Coleman signed on to sell lamps for store windows. Their
gauze pressurized gasoline-burning pouches, or mantles, produced the brightest
light he’d ever seen. Rebuffed by skeptical storekeepers, Coleman dreamed up a new
tactic: “Don’t sell lamps; sell lighting!” In other words, rent out the lamps but sell the mantles and fuel. Today the
company he founded produces campers’ merchandise from the lamps themselves to camp stoves, canoes, and inflatable
outdoor furniture. Its large outlet store includes a small museum with a dozen
or more products of Coleman’s genius such as old-time toasters, irons, and even a wallpaper steamer.
Pizza Hut, now with some 12,000 stores worldwide, was born in the city in 1958,
gestated by two brothers in a tiny, red-roofed building with a $600 loan from
their mother. The Chamber of Commerce hopes to continue that tradition with a
new tier of entrepreneurs, using the slogan: “The status quo has never had status with us.”
A few years ago, physicians themselves took those words to heart when they began
establishing independent specialty hospitals. The new facilities include two
heart hospitals, a spine hospital, a surgery and recovery center, and two
simply designated “specialty hospitals.” One ambitious entrepreneur, Joseph Galichia, MD has carried the concept several
steps further. Since opening his Galichia Heart Hospital in 2001, he’s expanded his holdings into a multi-specialty practice with 21 satellite
clinics in Kansas.
The complexes cite fees comparable to the general-service hospitals, and
patients with multiple and extremely acute problems are referred to Via Christi
and Wesley, but spokespeople at both general hospitals, quoted in a 2005 Time
magazine article, produced statistics showing that the newcomers were draining
their most profitable niches. This, they said, could force them to set limits
on charity and Medicaid services, although that hasn’t happened yet. Whether spurred on by the competition or simply improving care,
both Via Christi and Wesley have continued to add services, facilities, and
state-of-the-art equipment.
Legislative efforts to level this competitive playing field have so far
languished, and one advisory commission concluded that the competitors “do not have a significant impact” on acute-care hospitals.
The CEO of one Wichita facility points out that his—and the other specialties—offer doctor-owners greater control over patient care, ease of operation on a
smaller scope, easier scheduling of procedures, and greater efficiency, freeing
up significant time for office hours.
Edwin French, the CEO of MedCath Corporation, with 11 heart hospitals and other
enterprises in eight states, says, “We raise the bar for the community.” The debate continues.
In Wichita, innovation and farsighted planning have been a strong suit in some
government sectors, too.
Wichitans from toddlers to seniors take advantage of the city’s parks, 123 altogether, ranging in size from a few as small as the .37-acre
Victorian Park wedged onto a traffic island, to the 624-acre Pawnee Prairie
Park. Many of these parks and greenways contain golf courses, baseball fields,
pools, tennis courts, and space for planned activities, but wild habitat areas
take up 30 percent.
All of the above are a legacy of an early mayor, L.W. Clapp, for whom one large
park is named. Clapp’s dictum: “Every Wichita citizen should enjoy nature without traveling far from home.”
For Steere’s husband, the best part of the park system is its many golf courses. Not only
that, Steere says, “Sometimes you can golf 11 months of the year here.” Steere herself is an avid runner and is happy that the city is laced with an
abundance of trails for hiking, biking, and running. Special bike trails
stretch for several miles on each side of the Arkansas River.
Strangely enough, with a huge number of Wichita residents involved in some
physical activity, Men’s Fitness magazine cited the city as America’s 19th fattest in 2005, noting that only one in five adults eats the minimum
recommended servings of fruit and vegetables per day. Flab conclusions are
mixed, though. A nationwide research firm has named the State of Kansas America’s 10th healthiest.
Regardless of the confusion, Wichita’s YMCA is working hard to turn around the poundage challenged. It counts 165,000
people (about a third of the population) who take advantage of its pool,
exercise, and sports activities at eight branches and an indoor sports center.
With a four-year-old son, a two-year-old daughter, and a newborn, Qaum is
especially pleased with the city’s array of activities for children, many of them in the parks or organized by
park employees. His son is in a swimming class, and the Sedgwick County Zoo,
ranked No. 8 in the country, is a favorite place to visit. The park system also
offers a 10-week series of children’s activities—Summer of Discovery—in nine park centers, including sports, games, crafts, cultural arts, and
several field trips. An $80-per-week fee covers all of the above.
Non-park possibilities include children’s theater, dancing, arts, and physical education activities.
Of many summer events for adults, two perennials attract multitudes. The Wichita
Flight Festival salutes the city’s heritage with a weekend of air shows. A unique “bathtub race” highlights the nine-day Riverfest every May. Each boat on the river must have
some kind of tub on board.
Also very important to Qaum and his wife are highly rated schools: public, private, and parochial. They especially compare the large number of
advanced placement classes (17) at private schools with those in the affluent
Long Island town of Jericho, where a colleague of his practices. “But the cost in Wichita is a fraction of what we would pay in New York,” he says.
Ditto, in a big way, for housing. “Compare living in Wichita to living near top-rated Massachusetts General
Hospital, where I rotated as a Harvard medical student. Rent for a one-room
studio apartment ran about $1,500 to $2,000. In Wichita, you can rent an entire
house with double or triple the footage for less than half those prices,” he says.
So there’s no place like home in Wichita, and it’s as affordable as it is desirable. END
Eileen Lockwood is a free-lance writer based in St. Joseph, Missouri.
