From the CEO

Dear Friends, Neighbors, and Community Partners,

As we reflect on 2025, I am filled with gratitude for the people who make Holton Community Hospital such an important part of Jackson County and northeast Kansas. This was a year of meaningful progress, renewed momentum, and tremendous community support.

One of the most significant milestones of the year was the success of the Community Support Campaign. The passage of the countywide sales tax initiative represented more than financial support for HCH. It was a clear statement that Jackson County values local healthcare, local jobs, and continued access to emergency, inpatient, outpatient, surgical, and specialty services close to home. We are deeply grateful for the trust our community has placed in us.

That trust is something we take seriously. In 2025, HCH strengthened its operations and improved financial performance while continuing to expand access to care. Our Revenue Cycle team achieved a major turnaround at Holton Family Medicine, increasing co-pay collections from 8% at the beginning of the year to 69% by June. Through training, standard operating procedures, improved workflows, and teamwork, the team exceeded its year-end goal six months ahead of schedule.

Holton Community Hospital also ended 2025 with approximately $2 million in positive income, an important achievement in today’s rural healthcare environment. This progress reflects responsible leadership, disciplined operations, community support, and the dedication of our employees and providers.

Throughout the year, we continued our efforts to recruit needed providers that allow patients to receive specialty care close to home. These investments support our long-term goal of meeting the healthcare needs of our community today while preparing for tomorrow.

Most importantly, every success highlighted in this report is the result of our people. Our employees, providers, volunteers, board members, donors, community partners, and patients make HCH who we are. Every day, our team lives out our mission to provide professionalism, compassion, and excellence in healthcare for a healthier community.

As we look ahead, we do so with optimism and responsibility. The challenges facing rural healthcare are real, but so is the strength of this organization and this community. Thank you for believing in Holton Community Hospital, supporting local healthcare, and allowing us to care for you and your family.

With gratitude,

Carrie Lutz
Chief Executive Officer
Holton Community Hospital

Awards

Kansas Hospital Association – 2025 Advocacy All-Star MVP

Kristi Roush, Senior Director of Ancillary Services, has been recognized by the Kansas Hospital Association (KHA) as the 2025 Advocacy All-Star MVP during KHA Advocacy Day on January 22, 2026, in Topeka, Kansas.

Holton Community Hospital is proud to announce that Kristi Roush, Senior Director of Ancillary Services, has been recognized by the Kansas Hospital Association (KHA) as the 2025 Advocacy All-Star MVP during KHA Advocacy Day on January 22, 2026, in Topeka, Kansas.

Read the full article HERE.

Kansas Association of Health Care Communicators – Emerald Awards

Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC)

The PFAC volunteered to become assist edit the HCH Foundation Magazine during its first edition in 2024.  In 2025 they received an Emerald award from the Kansas Association of Health Care Communicators in the category of Communications – Other.

Front Row (L to R): Nicole McReeves, Theresa Watkins, Mallory Jacobs (Chair), Dennis Mulroy, Janice Aeschliman

Back Row (L to R): Roger Stockman, Billie McClure, Mark Aeschliman, Nicole Meerpohl, Gregg Watkins and Cody Utz (Co-Chair).

Other 2025 Emerald Awards

Communications – Total Campaign
Roger Stockman & VVV Consultants

Total Campaign
Roger Stockman & Dr. Schnee’s Weight Loss Clinic

Restorix Health Excellence for Clinical Distinction Award

The Advanced Wound Clinic at Holton Community Hospital has received the 2025 Restorix Health Excellence for Clinical Distinction Award!

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Education Success Story

Investing in the Next Generation of Healthcare Professionals

In 2025, Holton Community Hospital continued to strengthen its commitment to healthcare education by creating meaningful, hands-on learning opportunities for students across Jackson County and beyond. These programs reflect HCH’s long-term investment in the future of rural healthcare by helping students explore career pathways, build confidence, and gain real-world exposure to hospital-based care.

A key highlight was the continued growth of the HCH Healthcare Academy, now in its third year. This free, one-week immersive program gave local high school students the opportunity to rotate through multiple hospital departments, learn directly from nurses, providers, and staff, and experience the wide range of careers available in healthcare. The 2025 Healthcare Academy included personalized job shadowing, department-based education, patient care exposure, surgical observation opportunities, and mentorship from HCH team members. Ten students completed the 2025 program.

HCH also welcomed students from Jackson Heights High School for a full-day job shadow experience. Students rotated through departments such as Radiology, Surgery, Nursing, Rehabilitation Services, and other areas, giving them a firsthand look at the teamwork, skill, and compassion involved in caring for patients. These experiences help students better understand the many career options available close to home.

In addition to high school programs, HCH supported future healthcare professionals through student clinical rotations with Rasmussen University and Washburn University/Washburn Tech. These partnerships allow nursing and allied health students to complete clinical experiences in a rural hospital setting while learning from experienced HCH staff. These rotations also serve as an important recruitment pathway, introducing students to the rewards and opportunities of rural healthcare.

HCH continued to support Professional Learning Experience students from Holton, Royal Valley, and Jackson Heights High Schools. These students contributed to projects, observed daily operations, and gained practical experience in departments such as marketing, healthcare outreach, and patient services.

Together, these educational programs demonstrate HCH’s ongoing commitment to workforce development, community partnership, and sustaining access to high-quality healthcare for future generations.

Student Comments

“My favorite part of the program was being able to connect with all of the people in these different programs.”
Ki-Bo – Class of 2025

“…I have been looking into going down the path to be an Anesthesiologist and I got to learn a lot of important things for that career path. “
Alexa – Class of 2025

“I like that I got to have a more in depth understanding of the medical field and all the things that help a hospital run.”
Marley – Class of 2025Empty heading

Community Health Needs Assessment

Listening to Jackson County. Planning for the Future.

Holton Community Hospital completed its latest Community Health Needs Assessment for Jackson County in 2024, with the final report released for public use in 2025. The assessment is part of HCH’s ongoing responsibility as a nonprofit hospital to evaluate local health needs, gather community input, and adopt an implementation strategy to guide future community health improvement efforts.

The 2024 CHNA was facilitated by VVV Consultants LLC and included secondary health data, community feedback, and a Town Hall discussion held on November 7, 2024. The process brought together community members, healthcare leaders, public health representatives, school and business leaders, hospital staff, and other local stakeholders to identify the most pressing health needs in Jackson County.

2024 CHNA Priority Rankings

Table Title: Jackson County, KS 2024 CHNA Unmet Needs – Town Hall 11/7/24

Total Votes: 127

Other items receiving votes: Childcare, Dental, Economic Development, and STIs.

Through the Town Hall process, participants identified seven priority areas for improvement:

Mental Health was ranked as the top unmet need, including concerns related to diagnosis, placement, aftercare, and provider access. Community feedback also reflected concern about depression, suicide prevention, youth mental health, and the need to reduce stigma.

Obesity, fitness, and nutrition were identified as major concerns, with discussion focused on access to affordable fitness opportunities, nutrition education, healthy food options, and community-wide wellness activities.

Substance abuse, particularly drug-related concerns, was also prioritized. The CHNA points to the need for continued education, prevention, support services, and coordination among healthcare, schools, law enforcement, and community partners.

Chronic disease management and education emerged as another priority, including preventive screenings, care coordination, diabetes education, cardiac health, cancer screening, and helping residents better manage long-term health conditions.

The CHNA also identified adequate housing, uninsured residents and lack of Medicaid expansion, and senior health as important community health issues. These areas reflect the broader social determinants of health that affect Jackson County residents, including economic stability, transportation, housing, access to care, and community support.

Implementation and Next Steps

Following the CHNA, Holton Community Hospital developed a 2025 Implementation Plan to address the identified needs. The plan outlines specific actions, lead organizations, community partners, and resource commitments for the three-year cycle.

HCH’s implementation plan includes: direct hospital services, community education, primary care and specialty care partnerships, behavioral health support, chronic disease prevention, worksite health outreach, wellness screenings, and continued collaboration with organizations such as public health, KANZA, Senior Life Solutions, schools, law enforcement, local government, senior services, and other community partners.

Several needs identified in the CHNA, including housing, substance abuse, and uninsured access, are recognized as community-wide social determinants of health. In these areas, HCH’s role will be to partner, support, educate, advocate, and connect residents with available resources where appropriate.

The full CHNA report and implementation plan are available to the public on the Holton Community Hospital website.

Quality

Strong Prevention With Goals for Improvement

2025 Quality Report Card

Holton Community Hospital continued to demonstrate strong quality and patient safety performance in 2025, with several key measures meeting or exceeding established benchmarks. Hand hygiene adherence remained strong at 97.8%, exceeding both the state and Quality Health Indicator averages. Surgical Site Infection performance was also excellent, with an SSI rate of 0.0, reflecting the continued effectiveness of infection prevention practices, surgical safety protocols, staff education, and multidisciplinary teamwork.

Patient safety outcomes also showed important strengths. The hospital reported a 0.0 fall rate resulting in fracture or dislocation, demonstrating strong clinical response, patient protection strategies, and mitigation of serious harm when falls occur. At the same time, unassisted patient falls remain an area of continued focus. The 2025 unassisted fall rate was 0.58 per 1,000 inpatient days, which was higher than state and national QHi benchmarks. Ongoing improvement work will continue to emphasize fall-risk assessment, proactive rounding, mobility support, bed alarms when appropriate, and staff education aimed at reducing fall occurrence while maintaining strong performance in preventing serious injury.

Inpatient readmission performance remained stable. The hospital’s 30-day all-cause inpatient readmission rate was 7.3, in line with state and national averages and favorable compared to the BCBS QBRP benchmark of 10. This reflects continued attention to discharge planning, care coordination, and follow-up after hospitalization.

Sepsis care remains a focused opportunity for improvement. The hospital’s 3-hour sepsis bundle compliance rate was 63.6%, exceeding the BCBS QBRP benchmark of 50%, but below state and national QHi averages. HCH continues to review sepsis cases individually through chart abstraction to identify gaps, improve timeliness, and provide direct feedback to providers and staff. These efforts support real-time learning, reinforce evidence-based care, and strengthen consistency in recognizing and treating sepsis.

Overall, the 2025 Quality Report Card reflects strong infection prevention, positive readmission outcomes, and excellent prevention of serious fall-related injury, while identifying clear opportunities to further improve fall prevention and sepsis bundle compliance.

Table Title: 2025 Quality Report Card

Patient and Family Advisory Council

Focusing on Patient Experience and Communication

Since its inception in 2016, Holton Community Hospital’s Patient & Family Advisory Council (PFAC), also known as the Patient and Family Voice, has served as an important link between patients, families, community members, and hospital leadership. In 2025, PFAC continued to support HCH’s commitment to patient-centered care by offering practical feedback, community perspective, and guidance on initiatives affecting communication, access, patient experience, and public understanding of hospital services.

Throughout the year, PFAC focused heavily on improving patient communication, health literacy, and clarity in patient-facing materials. The council reviewed a wide range of resources, including admission packets, financial forms, educational flyers, patient care boards, resource guides, and materials related to care coordination and follow-up outreach. Several PFAC recommendations were incorporated into final materials now in active use, helping improve patient understanding of care processes, financial responsibilities, and available community resources.

PFAC also played a meaningful role in community engagement and public education efforts during a significant year for HCH. Members provided feedback on messaging related to the Jackson County quarter-cent sales tax initiative, helping strengthen transparency and community understanding of the hospital’s needs and impact. The council also contributed to discussions around hospital publications, website design, social media messaging, patient testimonials, and the hospital’s broader economic role in Jackson County. PFAC’s advisory support was also reflected in the HCH magazine project, which received an Emerald Award from the Kansas Association of Health Care Communicators.

Patient experience remained a central focus of PFAC’s work. The council reviewed patient satisfaction trends across inpatient, emergency department, and swing bed services, using patient feedback to identify opportunities for continued improvement. PFAC also discussed the potential expansion of care plan meetings for hospitalized patients, reinforcing the importance of communication, shared understanding, and patient involvement in care decisions.

In addition, PFAC provided input on hospital programs, policies, and services affecting patients across the continuum of care. This included review of rural health clinic annual reports, enhancements to the Jackson County Resource List, updates to self-pay and co-pay collection policies, Medicare education planning, and discussions around emergency department experiences and community resource connections.

Facility navigation and wayfinding were also important areas of discussion. PFAC identified opportunities to reduce patient confusion around emergency entrance signage, registration workflows, and treatment room communication. These observations provided leadership and operational teams with practical, real-world insight into how patients and families experience HCH facilities.

Overall, PFAC’s work in 2025 strengthened patient-centered decision-making by bringing lived experience and community insight into hospital planning, communication, and improvement efforts. Through its review of materials, participation in public education, attention to patient experience, and focus on accessibility, PFAC helped support HCH’s ongoing commitment to professionalism, compassion, and excellence in healthcare for a healthier community.

Cody Utz
Senior Director of Quality, Risk Management, & Informatics

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” – Henry Ford

Community Support Campaign

Building Community Partnerships and Support

Holton Community Hospital’s Jackson County Sales Tax Campaign was a countywide educational initiative designed to protect rural healthcare access. Through transparent communication, town halls across the county, myth-busting social media content, and strong community partnerships, the hospital built widespread public support for a 0.25% sales tax. Executed entirely in-house on a $22,859 budget, the campaign achieved more than 360,000 views, engaged over 33,000 unique viewers, and increased website traffic by 7.4%. Voters approved the initiative with 62% support, securing an estimated $400,000 a year in tax revenue for ten years, a potential of $4 million for local healthcare services over the next decade.

*(Based on current tax revenues for Jackson County).

Beginning in early 2025, HCH implemented a strategic, research-driven campaign grounded in transparency, education, and community engagement. Guided by findings from the hospital’s Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and the KHA statewide economic impact Report data, the campaign focused on five key message pillars: Access, Jobs, Education, Growth, and Equity.

The campaign emphasized the real-world importance of local healthcare access for Jackson County residents, including seniors, individuals with disabilities, families without reliable transportation, and patients requiring ongoing therapy, specialty care, or emergency services.

A comprehensive multi-channel strategy included community town halls, newspaper advertising, radio campaigns, educational flyers, social media outreach, and a dedicated webpage providing financial information, FAQs, and myth-versus-fact education. The campaign also highlighted testimonials from providers, patients, and community members about the importance of keeping healthcare local.

On Election Day, Jackson County voters approved the initiative with 62% support, securing an estimated $300,000–$400,000 annually for local healthcare services over the next decade.

More importantly, the campaign strengthened relationships between the hospital and the community it serves. Through open communication, active listening, and a commitment to transparency, HCH reinforced its role not only as a healthcare provider, but as a trusted community partner dedicated to protecting local access to care for future generations.

Strategic Planning

Responsible Planning, Financial Stewardship, & Long-Term Sustainability.

Building a Strategic Plan for the Future of Local Healthcare

In 2025, Holton Community Hospital partnered with Stroudwater Associates as part of its continued commitment to responsible planning, financial stewardship, and long-term sustainability. This work supported HCH’s ongoing responsibility to plan thoughtfully around its USDA-funded facility investment while continuing to grow services and preserve access to local care. Stroudwater, a healthcare consulting firm specializing in rural hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals, helped HCH evaluate operational opportunities, service-line growth, patient access, and future planning needs. The assessment provided leadership with a practical roadmap for strengthening care delivery and positioning HCH for continued success.

• Expanding Local Access to Specialty Care
• Keeping More Care Close to Home
• Improving Emergency, Inpatient, and Swing Bed Processes
• Strengthening Key Service Lines
• Using Data to Guide Growth and Improvement

A major focus of the plan is keeping more care close to home. The assessment encouraged HCH to better understand patient referral patterns, identify services that are leaving the community, and evaluate where local services could be expanded. This work supports one of the hospital’s most important goals: helping patients receive high-quality care locally whenever it is safe and appropriate.

The plan also highlights the importance of expanding access to specialty care. In 2025 and 2026, HCH continued building relationships with specialty providers in areas such as gastroenterology, hematology-oncology, rheumatology, urology, orthopedics, dietetics, and anesthesia support. These partnerships strengthen HCH’s role as a local access point for specialty services and reduce the need for patients to travel for routine consultations, follow-up care, and certain procedures.

Recommendations focused on improving how patients move through the hospital, including how admissions and transfers are reviewed, how inpatient status is determined, and how swing bed services are used. By strengthening these processes, HCH can help ensure patients are placed in the right level of care at the right time. This work also supports better communication between providers, staff, patients, families, and outside care partners.

The assessment also highlighted the importance of continued collaboration with local EMS. Strong coordination with EMS helps ensure patients are transported to the most appropriate care setting and that HCH continues to serve as a trusted access point for emergency and inpatient care in Jackson County.

Also identified were several key service lines with opportunities for growth, including surgery, imaging, rehabilitation, and laboratory services. These departments play an important role in keeping care local and reducing the need for patients to travel outside the community for services that can be safely and effectively provided at HCH.

Recommendations focused on increasing awareness of available services, tracking referral patterns, reviewing wait times, and identifying opportunities for responsible growth. For example, better understanding where patients are being referred can help HCH determine which services should be promoted, expanded, or better supported. This kind of information allows leadership to make decisions based on real patient needs and service demand.

The plan also encouraged HCH to evaluate future operational needs, including staffing, space, equipment, provider workflows, and potential partnerships. By strengthening these core service lines, HCH can continue improving access, supporting local providers, and positioning the hospital for long-term sustainability while maintaining its commitment to personalized care, hometown heart.

Key Strategic Themes Identified Through the Stroudwater Assessment

The 2025 Stroudwater assessment helped HCH identify several priorities for future growth and improvement:

Expand local access to care
Grow specialty services and outpatient access so more patients can receive care close to home.

Keep more care in the community
Track referral patterns and identify services that could be safely and appropriately provided at HCH.

Improve patient flow
Strengthen admission, transfer, emergency care, inpatient, and swing bed processes.

Grow key service lines
Evaluate opportunities in surgery, imaging, rehabilitation, laboratory services, and specialty care.

Use data to guide decisions
Track volumes, referrals, wait times, transfers, and turnaround times to support smarter planning.

Plan for long-term sustainability
Use the assessment findings to guide future investments, partnerships, staffing decisions, and facility planning.

Positive Growth Trends in 2025*

*Note: In 2025, HCH transitioned from fiscal year reporting to calendar year reporting. As a result, comparative figures are provided as estimates only and should be interpreted with this reporting change in mind.

HCH by the Numbers

Continued Growth and New Opportunities

HCH Serves Jackson County

In CY2025 we had…

Jackson County Benefits

*Source: 2025 Jackson County Economic Impact Report.  Read more HERE.

Read the full article on the Community Support Campaign HERE.

Operating Revenues & Expenses

Revenues

Expenses

Retention & Recruitment

Celebrating Dedicated Years of Service

2025 Employee Milestone Celebration

Celebrated each year during Hospital Week