News – Page 1801 – Ranson Financial Group LLC

Scott County Hospital has protocols, ventilators ready if … or when … COVID-19 arrives

info2020-04-06T08:29:43-05:00April 6th, 2020|

Ever since the coronavirus first emerged in the U.S. and even as it has evolved into a pandemic, many Western Kansas residents have been ambivalent to the risk. Few have chosen to practice social distancing. Many thought the governor’s decision to close schools for the remainder of the year was an overreaction. But the Scott County Hospital has taken the threat seriously. “I’m proud of how our staff has responded in preparing for this situation,” says Scott County Hospital CEO Mark Burnett. “We hope that, if anything, we’ve over-prepared and that we won’t need all the measures that we’ve ut into [...]

Johnson County says church gathering size restrictions still in effect after clarification from state

info2020-04-06T08:25:40-05:00April 6th, 2020|

The 10-person limit on gathering sizes will still apply to religious services, Johnson County officials said Friday night after receiving clarification from the governor’s office. The statewide stay-at-home ordered issued by Gov. Laura Kelly March 28 led to some confusion here in Johnson County about whether churches and other religious institutions were still subject to the gathering size limit of 10 people instituted as part of the CORE 4 partners’ stay-at-home order, which was announced a week prior. The metro-area order did not provide a blanket exemption for religious institutions. However, Kelly’s order made gun shops and churches exempt from the [...]

Mission votes to ‘take care’ of full and part-time city employees during COVID-19 stay-at-home order

info2020-04-06T08:24:48-05:00April 6th, 2020|

The Mission city council during a special called meeting on Wednesday evening unanimously approved employee compensation and benefit amendments to the city’s state of emergency and disaster proclamation, which was originally issued on March 13 and first amended on March 18. The amendments ensure full-time and part-time city workers are compensated for hours worked or hours scheduled, and employees that must physically show up to work will accrue extra vacation time. These plans differ from the neighboring community of Overland Park, which ordered that 200 part-time employees be furloughed. (Read more: Shawnee Mission Post )

Rural Kansas’ Ambulance Crews Will Be Doubly Strained By Coronavirus

info2020-04-06T08:22:52-05:00April 6th, 2020|

The Finney County Emergency Medical Service department, with its staff of 23, is conserving its N95 masks and only using them when a patient is positive for COVID-19. Like large hospitals, U.S. cities and entire European countries, rural EMS workers aren’t shielded from the medical supply shortage. And that’s just one of the challenges rural EMS agencies across Kansas stare down as COVID-19 is being confirmed in their communities. They’re stretched thin, covering hundreds of miles, and seeing the ripple effects from the pandemic that’s shut down communities — something emergency plans hadn’t accounted for. (Read more: RSS Feed)

Kansas counties to receive portion of Strategic National Stockpile

info2020-04-06T08:22:09-05:00April 6th, 2020|

FEMA has delivered Kansas’ portion of the Strategic National Stockpile and the Kansas Division of Emergency Management will coordinate distribution of these critical resources to all 105 counties starting this weekend to help communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Strategic National Stockpile is the nation’s largest supply of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. (Read more: KSN-TV)

Kansas City area has spent years planning for a disaster like this one. Is it ready?

info2020-04-06T08:15:23-05:00April 5th, 2020|

Parked at hospitals and secret locations across the region, dozens of trailers are jam-packed with hundreds of cots, masks, gowns and other medical supplies. Except for routine inspection, the doors to many are never opened and haven’t been widely used since Kansas City-area emergency planners acquired them nearly two decades ago with federal assistance. Only a few have ever rolled out. Once to provide aid after an ice storm in St. Louis, and once to help out New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina nearly 15 years ago. Now, for the first time the hospital trailers — and all the planning and coordination [...]

Sedgwick County residents concerned about toilet paper in price gouging complaints

info2020-04-06T08:15:43-05:00April 5th, 2020|

Toilet paper has been a concern in price gouging complaints, the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office put the Kansas price-gouging law into effect on March 12, less than a week after Kansas’ first novel coronavirus case was announced. Since then the AG’s office has received at least 157 reports, a spokesperson said this week. Sedgwick County cases had been referred back to it. (Read more: Local News |)

Kansas, Wichita do better than most in coronavirus economy, but it likely won’t last

info2020-04-06T08:17:28-05:00April 5th, 2020|

In these days of coronavirus closures, about 103,000 of us are in essential industries in Sedgwick County and 117,000 are classified as non-essential. And while Kansas is suffering less than most from the COVID-19 economic crisis in the short term, the state and Wichita in particular will likely have a harder time bouncing back than other areas that are bearing a bigger brunt now. Those are among the key findings of economic research released in the past week by Wichita State University. (Read more: Local News |)

Special assignment: Lindsborg police deliver 96th birthday party

info2020-04-06T08:17:39-05:00April 5th, 2020|

Thursday Lindsborg police chief Michael Davis had a special assignment for officer Terry Reed — one that would put a smile on more than just a few faces. The police department had received a tip to follow up on. There was a 96-year-old woman in town that needed a special welfare check. “They told me that Aleda [Penn] had a birthday today, and that she was feeling lonely,” Davis said. She was feeling lonely because she’s stuck at home — like so many others — due to COVID-19 and stay at home orders at the state level. Restrictions on groups of [...]

New system helps many needing food in Pratt

info2020-04-06T08:19:22-05:00April 5th, 2020|

A line of vehicles snaked their way through the parking lot at the Pratt Community Center as new guidelines went into effect for distributing Retired and Senior Volunteer Program commodities. Tiffany Ailstock, RSVP director, said the new system worked well although more families showed up than expected and a few families did not receive supplies. Ailstock said there were 224 families at the event and that is an increase of about forty families over the 166 families that were signed up in February. The 2020 numbers are an increase over the 149 families that were signed up in November 2019. Those [...]