Anchor Hospital Advanced Program (AHAP)

Bringing Care Closer to Home

Through the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), AHAP was named as a key program to establish key locations across the state to focus on improving technology, expansion of services, acess to speciality care, and enhanced patient care.

Program Focus Areas

AHAP has established priorities for year one of funding:

1. On-Demand and Consultative Resources
Make available subject matter experts to assist with location-specific needs, e.g., cybersecurity, long-term site planning and mechanical assessment, quality & safety assessments, managed care contracting
2. Artificial Intelligence and EHR optimization
Form committee to identify and prioritize operational challenges that have viable technology solutions for rapid and broad implementation
Deploy solutions across anchor hospitals to help with efficiency, patient safety, and experience
3. Remote Patient Monitoring
Deploy wearables for continuous inpatient monitoring to decrease length of stay, reduce complication rates, and reduce hospital staff workloads
4. Rural Residency Programs
Expand/develop programs in 5 high-need specialties: OB/GYN, Behavioral Health, Family Medicine, General Surgery, Psychiatry, and Orthopedics.

Identifying 10 Anchor Sites

AHAP has established priorities for year one of funding: This designation reflects capacity to support surrounding communities within a 60-minute drive as a proxy, expand specialty care, and drive innovation across the state.

AHAP Program Updates

Last Updated: 5/21/2026

AHAP INFORMATION
• AHAP Media Fact Deck

ADDITIONAL AHAP RESOURCES:

MEDIA CONTACT:

Julie Gilmor
[email protected]

RURAL RESIDENCY

The objective of a designated rural track residency program is to help expand Kansas-based medical education capacity through building practical, training pathways utilizing anchor hospital locations and aligned academic partners: KUMC Wichita, KUMC Kansas City, and Salina/ Smoky Hill.  Over the course of five years, primary rural sites will receive residents into various pathways through the aforementioned academic partners.

Rural residency leadership is currently focused on executing year one goals focused on sites that have existing framework to support an efficient program start, providing a framework for other sites in subsequent years. Year one projects approximately 17 new rural residents across 6 anchor site areas.

The program is working through build requirements that need to be in place for an anchor hospital to support incoming residents through this program including but not limited to: site development, training, program development, faculty recruitment, and faculty development.

In year one, the implementation timeline stems from early summer 2026 through late fall 2026.  The primary focus checkpoints are program launch and governance, site readiness and ACGME applications, recruitment, expansion, and execution.

AI EMR

The purpose of the AHAP board of directors engaging with AI is to help solve technology and infrastructure inefficiencies at each anchor site and across the state.  There are major focus areas for rural health and technology to intersect: healthcare access and affordability, capacity, digitally connected rural economies, and economic and social drivers of health.

The board of directors identified key areas of focus for AI development during strategic priority vision planning: EMR optimization, transitions of care, workforce development, revenue cycle management, and specialty care coverage/telemedicine.

RPM

The purpose of remote patient monitoring is to expand access to critical patients in need across rural areas.  Remote patient monitoring can help improve patient engagement, reduce hospital re-admissions, make care more cost-effective, and provide continuous monitoring through real-time data.  Through wearable devices, this program will collect vital signs and physiological data including but not limited to:

  • Heart rate
  • Respiratory rate
  • Skin temperature
  • Other parameters such as activity level body position, gait analysis, and sleep

AHAP has committed to a first cohort including Newman Regional Health (Emporia) and Labette Health (Parsons). For year one, cohort one above is expected to go live by August 2026, with all anchor sites live by May of 2027.

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