By MADELINE REIDA

Staff writer

Senator Jerry Moran met Tuesday with Hillsboro Community Hospital administration and city government and local business leaders to tour the hospital and discuss community concerns.

Moran was involved with the hospital during its construction and has visited every hospital in Kansas at least twice.

“I wanted to get a feel for what you want us to know and what we can do in D.C. to help,” he said.

Hospital administrators said staffing, financing, and supply chain delays were their largest concerns.

Staffing problems in particular were magnified by the pandemic.

The hospital is short in all of its departments and cannot compete with the sign-on bonuses or salaries of other medical facilities. A vaccine mandate could cause them to lose even more staff and create hurdles for hiring, they said.

Moran advocated for vaccination but not for a mandated vaccine.

Moran spoke about using unemployment data to help both individuals and businesses by pairing people on unemployment benefits with places desperate to hire.

“I don’t know how this country or this community would work without workers,” he said. “Work is important to what a human is. Yes, it’s a paycheck, but it’s also a purpose.”

Moran also advocates immigration as another solution to the work force shortage.

“In the 1850s, we had a huge wave of immigrants from Russia and the Ukraine settle around here and form Hillsboro,” mayor Lou Thurston said. “We’re overdue for another one.”