Hospital / RHC
Ruraltown Health Center
A fifteen bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department, inpatient and swing bed care, surgery, imaging, and rehabilitation.
Visiting this facility
- Address
-
1400 North Cedar Street
Ruraltown, KS 67554 - Phone
- (620) 555-0142
- Emergency
- (620) 555-0911
- Fax
- (620) 555-0143
- Licensed beds
- 15
| Monday | Open 24 hours |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Open 24 hours |
| Wednesday | Open 24 hours |
| Thursday | Open 24 hours |
| Friday | Open 24 hours |
| Saturday | Open 24 hours |
| Sunday | Open 24 hours |
Ruraltown Health Center is the hospital for Ruraltown and the surrounding townships. Fifteen inpatient beds, an emergency department that never closes, an operating room, a full laboratory and imaging department, and a rehabilitation team, all inside one building on Cedar Street.
Critical access is a federal designation for small rural hospitals more than thirty five miles from the next facility. It is a real constraint and it shapes what we do. We are built to stabilize anything that comes through the door, to treat most of it here, and to move the small number of cases that need a larger center without losing time.
What we handle here
Chest pain, broken bones, pneumonia, farm injuries, dehydration, infections, and the long slow work of managing diabetes and heart failure. Scheduled surgery including general procedures, colonoscopy, and endoscopy. Recovery after a hospital stay through our swing bed program, so a patient who is not ready to go home does not have to finish rehabilitation ninety miles away.
When you need somewhere larger
Some things belong at a tertiary center, and we do not pretend otherwise. Trauma, complex cardiac intervention, neurosurgery, and high risk obstetrics are transferred. We hold transfer agreements with regional centers in Wichita and Hutchinson, arrange ground and air transport, and send your records ahead so the receiving team is not starting from zero.
A short history
The county built the original Ruraltown Memorial Hospital in 1948, funded by a bond issue and a good deal of volunteer labor from families who had just come home from the war. It opened with twenty two beds and two physicians.
The hospital converted to critical access status in 1999, which meant giving up beds in exchange for a payment model that small rural hospitals can actually survive on. The current building replaced the 1948 structure in 2007. The name changed to Ruraltown Health Center in 2018, when the hospital, the clinic, and the long term care facility were brought under Demonstration Healthcare as a single organization.
Getting here
The health center sits at the north end of Cedar Street, four blocks past the grain elevator. Coming in on Highway 14, turn west at the second light and follow the blue hospital signs for half a mile.
The emergency entrance is on the north side of the building and is lit and staffed around the clock. The main entrance on the east side is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Parking
Parking is free and there is no garage to navigate. Emergency parking is directly outside the north entrance. Patient and visitor parking is the east lot, and there are eight accessible spaces nearest the main doors.
If you are dropping someone off, the covered lane at the main entrance is open for loading at any time.
Accessibility
Both entrances are step free and have automatic doors. Wheelchairs are available inside each entrance. All patient rooms, restrooms, and public areas are wheelchair accessible.
We can arrange sign language interpretation and interpretation in other languages at no cost to you. Ask any staff member, or call ahead so we can have someone ready when you arrive.
Services at this facility
Providers here
Brian Ostergaard, PT, DPT
Director of Rehabilitation Services
Physical Therapy
Accepting new patients
Joel Kasten, PA-C
Physician Assistant, Emergency Department
Emergency Medicine
Not accepting new patients