KSU specialty hospital bid wanes in Wichita

Wichita, Kan.- Wichita veterinarians opposed to Kansas State University's (KSU) plans to build the city's first specialty hospital offering emergency services have forced college officials to suspend and possibly abandon the $3 million venture.

Dr. Ralph Richardson

Unfair competition leads the opposition's concerns. Although the city of roughly 350,000 residents is devoid of specialists, the area is serviced by an after-hours emergency clinic. While the need for specialists is great - the closest referral center is more than two hours away - critics claim there isn't enough emergency business to fuel the established Wichita Emergency Veterinary Clinic as well as the new hospital. KSU Dean Ralph Richardson, DVM, promises the hospital won't offer primary care, but he resists building a referral center without emergency services and refuses to move into Wichita if the veterinary community isn't on board.

"We've placed the project on hold, yet we still stand ready to provide the facility for the Wichita community," Richardson says. "We don't expect to achieve 100 percent enthusiastic support, but we want it. We would move forward provided a bipartisan group asked us to do so."

As some in the community resist KSU's plan, Dr. Bill Skaer represents practitioners welcoming it. In 2001, Skaer founded the Core Planning Committee LLC, a group of local veterinarians who recognize a need for specialty care and, in turn, invited KSU to Wichita. To determine whether the area could economically support such a venture, the group commissioned a marketing firm to study the project's feasibility.

Shoring up support

The resulting report fueled both veterinary factions. It showed it would take 2.5 referrals each month from Wichita's 75 veterinarians to support the specialty hospital. Critics claim that patient volume isn't doable in an area that refers just 750 cases to the college's Manhattan teaching hospital each year. Those numbers also generated fears that the hospital likely would put the emergency clinic out of business.

Skaer and other proponents argue against the criticisms, calling specialty services a generator for new business. As for the current emergency center, Skaer says: "The run-of-the-mill cases could be seen at the old emergency clinic. The more critical cases could be seen at the new facility. I think a little competition in this town would be good for everyone."

A recent rash of closed-door meetings haven't helped the situation, the opposition claims. Veterinarians are wary, local practice owner Dr. Clell Solomon says.

Practitioners on guard

"From where we started when K-State first came down here, it's like apples to oranges," he says. "Their original recommendation didn't include an emergency clinic, and some have taken offense that the college is determined to offer the service. This now seems like a shaky business proposition."

The criticism boils down to insufficient demand, Dr. Steven Crofoot adds.

"Wichita is the symbol of a depressed area in the United States," he says. "Jobs are leaving; we're an economically strapped community. I don't know anybody who doesn't want a specialty practice in town, but I don't know that we can support it. I'm not willing to take that risk."

At presstime, the two sides had ceased all meetings and had no plans for future talks. The KSU Foundation, the lending arm of the venture, has placed funding on hold, including the purchase of land mapped for the hospital site. Richardson would not confirm whether the college intends to discard the deal and look elsewhere to build but acknowledges the move to Wichita won't happen without more support.

Fading fast

"This is a Wichita veterinarian concern more than a KSU demand," he says. "The level of resistance is high enough to cause us to consider if this is the right thing to do. We really want a community that desires to have this environment created there."