A global pandemic isn’t the most ideal time for a community to make a major change to health care.
But that’s exactly what happened in Allen County, as the Allen County Regional Hospital began a lease agreement with Saint Luke’s Health System on July 1, 2020. The Kansas City-based health system took over all services and operations, including management of employees.
It happened just a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when the hospital was closed to visitors and services were limited. The hospital had been gearing toward that change for about two years, but the pandemic made the transition even more challenging.