Goodbye Bethany Medical Center

KCK · Post by **KCK** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:01 pm

Plan envisions senior housing, 70 homes at Bethany site

By MARK WIEBE

The Kansas City Star

Less than a month before demolition of the old Bethany Medical Center begins, a plan has emerged to build 70 homes and a senior housing complex on the site.

CHWC Inc. (Community Housing of Wyandotte County) received support for the plan Thursday from Wyandotte County's Unified Board of Commissioners. Getting the board's support is one of the first steps the nonprofit development corporation must take as it seeks a $3 million federal appropriation for the project. The board's support does not commit it to helping CWHC finance the $15 million to $20 million project.

â€œIt's just to show they believe in what we're doing, they believe in neighborhoods and they want to see good things happen,â€

KCK · Post by **KCK** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 3:25 am

http://www.kansascitykansan.com/article ... /news2.txt
Plans to demolish Bethany moving ahead
By MARY RUPERT

Kansan news editor

Plans to demolish the old Bethany Medical Center hospital building are going ahead, despite the efforts of a senator to stop them.

"We are scheduled to start demolition at the end of July, running through probably the end of November," said Lee Kortemeyer, director of facilities and properties for Providence Health, which owns Bethany.

About six demolition contractors are now bidding on the project, and bids should be returned by the end of next week, Kortemeyer said.

"The whole project is slated at $5 million for the demolition," he said, when asked for an estimate.

The main hospital building, which includes interconnected buildings, will be demolished through conventional methods, he said. The process is expected to take three months. The building is not currently in use.

The medical office building at the Bethany campus will remain standing and will continue at the site, he said.

State Sen. David Haley, D-Fourth Dist., raised environmental and historic site issues about the demolition of the building. He said he is meeting this week with historians about preserving the building. He also had indicated earlier that he wanted an environmental study of the demolition's effects on the community.

GRID · Post by **GRID** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 1:20 pm

So KCK does not have a hospital execpt KU Med which is practically in KCMO and across the KS river from most of KCK??? Holly crap.

KCK · Post by **KCK** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 2:25 pm

GRID wrote:So KCK does not have a hospital execpt KU Med which is practically in KCMO and across the KS river from most of KCK??? Holly crap.

Actually KCK still has Providence Medical Center. Providence Health actually is the group that owns Bethany. I used to work at Providence Medical Center, and it is a good hospital, much better than Bethany used to be, which is probably why they closed it. Bethany has not had patients for years now, and when it was still open, I heard that it bled money.

I don't know for sure, but 2 hospitals does seem like a low number for a city of 147,000, but since KU is one of the biggest hospitals in the state, I guess that makes up for it.

Overland Park has Menorah, Childrens Mercy South, Overland Park Regional, Saint Luke's South, Mid-Ameriica Rehabilitation Hospital, plus those specialty hospitals. I know hospitals don't like dealing with the KCK market due to high numbers of uninsured patients. This was a big issue back when I worked at Providence. Yes, we treated the uninsured, but we had to budget carefully because the uninsured were costing us a ton of money.