By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A group of community members gathered in Hays Friday for a HaysMed health assessment.
As a nonprofit, HaysMed is required to conduct a community health assessment every three years. Although the assessment focuses on the overall community, not all the aspects addressed in the assessment are under the purview of HaysMed.
Almost two-thirds of 32 participants said mental health care is one of the top needs in the community. Mental health also topped the list for residents responding to a community health needs assessment survey.
Also among the top needs were medical care for the uninsured and underinsured, more medical specialists and a memory care unit.
Increasing awareness of community services and addressing domestic violence and sexual assault tied to round out the top six most important health needs for the community as identified by the group.
Other unmet needs making a list included social engagement for youth, affordable and available child care, dentist and periodontist, access to transportation, senior housing, and safe and affordable housing.
Mental health care
Data presented at the town hall indicated Hays has about the same rate of depression diagnosis as the rest of northwest Kansas — 19.9 percent of residents ever being diagnosed with depression.
The suicide rate was lower than the state average of 18.7 per 100,000 people and 21.6 per 100,000 people for northwest Kansas.
Twenty percent of the survey respondents indicated that Ellis County's community readiness to deal with mental health is poor or very poor. Similar percentages said they also thought the community readiness to deal with substance abuse and suicide prevention was also poor or very poor, which facilitator Vince Vandehaar said were concerning trends.
The survey respondents said they thought Ellis County had a similar lack of readiness to address violence and abuse prevention.
Access to health care
According to the data presented at the town hall, 12.3 percent of Ellis County residents lived in poverty as of 2022. That is a slight decline from 13.1 percent in 2021 when the last health assessment was completed. It is higher than the averages for the state and northwest Kansas, which are both 11 percent.
However, the number of uninsured residents in Ellis County has risen since 2021 with 8.8 percent of Ellis County residents uninsured in 2021 and 9.6 percent in 2024. However, this is still less than the state and northwest Kansas average of 10 percent.
HaysMed has continued to give back to the community through charity care and bad debt write-offs. In 2023, HaysMed had $5.8 million in charity care and wrote off almost $2.7 million in bad debt.
About 69 adults (20-64) per 1,000 (about 7 percent) in Ellis County are receiving Kansas medical assistance. That is less than almost 100 per 1,000 residents (10 percent), which is the state average.
Meeting medical needs
Although the group expressed a need for more specialists Friday, data presented indicated most Ellis County residents use HaysMed for their medical care.
• 77.4 percent of inpatients used HaysMed
• 86.4 percent of outpatients used HaysMed
• 93.5 percent of emergency patients used HaysMed
Data indicated Ellis County residents have average to good access to preventive health measures.
• Almost 90 percent had access to exercise opportunities
• 52 percent received their annual mammography screening, which is 10 percent higher than the state average
• 74 percent received their annual checkups, which was about the regional average
• 67 percent had an annual checkup with their dentist, which is 4 percent higher than the state average
Overall, 61 percent of health assessment survey respondents said they rated health care delivery in their community as good or very good. Another 30 percent said it was average.