By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Florence Nightingale was one of the great innovators in the nursing profession in the 19th century. More than 110 years after her death, her name is still associated with the medical field. Tuesday morning, Barton County Health Department Director Karen Winkelman appeared before the board of commissioners to renew the contract for Nightingale Notes software for electronic record keeping.
"This has been really good," Winkelman said. "It has saved staff time. We use it for documentation, data reports - we pull a lot of data off it for our grants - billing. We can scan documents in. We can generate reminders for different appointments or different things."
The health department has used the software for the past seven years. The county has paid for up to 23 licenses to be used by the department. Winkelman was able to reduce the 2025-26 subscription to 21 licenses for $30,715, down from $31,218 last year. The Barton County Health Department registered 1,085 new clients last year, which is similar to the increase in 2023.