Want the “best care on the air?” Then you want Leslie Blakley ’95, who has been producing and hosting a 15-minute radio show that keeps her listeners informed about everything related to health care.
The show, which has an interview format, airs twice a week on KAIR Country 93.7 FM out of Atchison, Kan. Topics for the 
shows have run the gamut from dental care to healthy feet, and everything in between. “My guests are the experts. I just ask them questions that I think others want to know.”
Five years ago, Atchison County was ranked last out of all 105 Kansas counties in healthy living behaviors, and Atchison Hospital, where Blakley is surgery manager, began a number of initiatives to try to improve the county’s ranking. One of the initiatives was the radio program, and they asked Blakley to host it. She has been on the air for three years.
“We’ve concentrated a lot on what people can do to control their own behaviors, on what they can do to contribute to their own healthy lifestyles,” she said. “We talk about anything that will help the health of the community.”
Blakley’s show started out at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays, and hospital personnel decided to add a 12:30 p.m. Wednesday time slot within the first year.
In the latest county rankings for healthy behaviors, Atchison County has moved up and is no longer in last place, and Blakley hopes her program has played a part in that. Listeners have told her they have made appointments for screenings and tests after hearing her program, and others have asked about getting a recording from a program so someone they know can hear it.
“I do this because it makes a difference and it’s important,” she says. “If it makes a difference in one person’s life, it’s worth it. The program is patient advocacy at its best.”
Blakley earned a diploma in nursing from Research Hospital and Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., and has worked in operating rooms her entire career. She returned to school 20 years after her diploma and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Missouri Western while working full time. Blakley has been surgical manager at 25-bed Atchison Hospital since 2003.
To recognize her commitment, the hospital recently featured her on a billboard at the intersection of Hwys. 59 and 45 near Atchison.
“I don’t want to be remembered for my radio show,” Blakley says. “I want to be remembered for making a difference.”