COMMUNITY BENEFIT LEADER

Jennifer Thibault, RN, fits a helmet at a Headstrong for Jake bike rodeo.

For the third year in a row, we led the list of Kansas City-area hospitals in providing the greatest benefit to the community.

The standardized survey, released by the Missouri Hospital Association, found the total community benefit from The University of Kansas Hospital was valued at more than $108 million, up 27 percent from the $85 million our hospital led with in last year's survey.

The survey looks at such areas as charity care, community donations, patient bad debt, unpaid costs from Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and health professionals' education.