Manhattan has evolved into a regional health-care center, drawing people here for medical care from around the Flint Hills region.

The central facility here is Mercy Regional Health Center, a 150-bed hospital on two campuses. Mercy has expanded significantly over the past five years, modernizing the facilty while attempting to solidify the community's status as a regional hub. It is also actively campaigning to bring more medical specialists here, so that patients don't need to travel to larger communities such as Topeka and Wichita.

There are more than 100 physicians in Manhattan, including specialists such as onclogists, cardiologists and gastroenterologists. There is a large orthopedic surgery group here.

In addition to Mercy Regional, there's the Manhattan Surgical Hospital, which is essentially an outpatient surgi-center. The Riley County-Manhattan Health Department is the public agency assigned to protect the public health, and Lafene Health Center provides health care to K-State students here.

If there's a concern, it's that the population center here is small enough that some of the specialists are operating their practices on their own -- making for some long working hours. But with population growth and Mercy's physician recruitment efforts, that appears to be shifting. A new pulmonologist and a new cardiologist have recently signed up to come here.