photo by: Wikimedia Commons

Riyad Mahrez, the captain of the Algerian National Team, playing during a World Cup qualifying match against Guinea on Sept. 8, 2025. Mahrez is one of the the Algerian national team's biggest stars and should be a key player for the Fennec Foxes in the World Cup campaign.

With less than 80 days until the FIFA 2026 World Cup begins, the LMH Board of Trustees discussed how it is planning for the games, including how it could see an increase in usage during the month-long tournament.

The hospital’s leadership team presented an overview of its planning efforts during the LMH Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday morning. Jan Wiebe, LMH’s chief nursing officer, told the board that the hospital has been working with other health care organizations and local organizations for the past six months.

Wiebe said that Kansas City leaders have anticipated that around 650,000 people will visit the Kansas City-metro area during the World Cup, which will run from June 11 to July 16. According to FIFA estimates, the average fan who plans to attend a match will visit the country for around 10 days, so the potential surge of people would be “in and out,” Wiebe said, as opposed to a prolonged, month-long stay.

Although Wiebe said the bulk of visitors would be centered closer to the Kansas City area, she said LMH leaders have been a part of a health care committee that has met and provided updates about their abilities to handle an increase of patients. Wiebe said FIFA estimates hospitals can anticipate a “6% increase in volume on any given day,” but hospitals are planning for a 15% increase to be sure they can cover any potential surges.

Wiebe noted that most of the increase in visits to LMH would be for minor issues, with “very few critical” patients. Wiebe said LMH has been able to increase its emergency department bed availability from 29 to 33 beds, and the hospital feels like it won’t get caught flat footed.

“We feel like we’re very well prepared,” Wiebe said.

Other concerns brought up during the meeting included how the hospital could bill patients coming in from other countries. Wiebe noted that if a person coming to LMH is with FIFA, with the national teams or booked their stay through a travel agency, they would have some insurance. But for people visiting from a country with universal health care or who have no insurance, that could create complications.

Rob Chestnut, LMH’s chief financial officer, said to bill those patients without insurance, the hospital is coordinating to have a “simple cash pricing system” for certain diagnoses or visits. He also said that the hospital is training front desk workers on what certain foreign IDs would look like, especially for any Algerian visitors because the country’s national team will stay in Lawrence as a base camp.

As the Journal-World reported, the national team will train at Rock Chalk Park in northwest Lawrence during its World Cup stay. Wiebe noted that LMH’s West Campus is right across the street. Although they “don’t anticipate people flooding” to Rock Chalk Park to get a glimpse of the team training, Michael Williams, the hospital’s Vice President and chief information officer, said LMH will increase security in the area to ensure any increase in visitors will not “impede (their) patients’ access.”

Wiebe also said that while some countries end up having lots of fans stay in the host cities — fans of the Argentina team, which will be based in Kansas City, is a prime example — the Algerian fan base is not known for lots of international travel. Still, the hospital is working on creating signage in Arabic and French to help Algerian visitors, and hospitals across the region are working to increase translation services.

One way the hospital has prepared to help communicate with foreign visitors is by creating a WhatsApp account. The messaging app, created by Meta, is the most popular form of communication in many foreign countries, including Algeria, according to Wiebe.

Although preparing for the massive tournament has created additional work and preparation for the hospital team, Shelly Kortkamp, LMH’s president and CEO, said that having Lawrence be a key feature of the World Cup is a big moment.

“It is very exciting,” Kortkamp said. “We’re trying to remember that (amid the preparation).”