The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-07-08
WOULD CREATE GREAT RURAL
HEALTH CENTER IN This CITY
Chamber of Commerce Movement To Reopen
Elizabeth City Hospital Has Backing of
American Medical Assn

Out OF a movement recently
1naugurated by thef Elizabeth
City Chamber of Commerce the
Elizabeth City Hospital may be
re-opened as a community hos
pital at an early date. Better
still, if the cooperation of neigh
Dor counties can be enlisted, this
hospital will be. turned into a rur-
al health center for these north
easternmost North Carolina
counties. The American Medical
Association, the U. S. Public
Health Service and the State
Board of Health are all interest
ed in the Natter proposition and
will cooperate in any plan to
make a hospital here serve the
rural population of several coun-
ties.
Committees of laymen and physicians,
both men and women, directed by the
Chamber of Commerce, are now active
ly at work and things are coming to a
head. DR.. Jon Saliba, owner of the
magnificent hospital property here has
agreed to lease the property to the COM
munity for a reasonable rental. The
property is in excellent condition, even
in such minor details as the bed linens,
etc.
The plan now afoot is not doctors
project. If the hospital is opened it
will be run by board of laymen direc-
tors with an advisory board of physi-
clans. No one physician or surgeon or
no particular group of physicians will
have any voice in the management. The
hospital will be open to every physician
to take his patients there for treatment
and the hospital will not interfere in
any way with arrangements existing be-
tween physicians and their patients.
This very fact gives the doctors of the
city a ivelier interest in the project
and most of them are putting their
shoulders to the wheel to get the hos
pital going.
The fact that the city hasn't sur
geon specialist doesn't stand in the way
at all. Skilled surgeons are available,
ready to locate in Elizabeth City if
Elizabeth City will give them hospital
to work IN. Thee is registered at the
Southern Hotel in Elizabeth City this
week DR.. NJ. S. Bulla, of Richmond,
Ind. He is here looking the town over
with view to locating. His presence
here is merely a coincidence.
The present movement to reopen the
Elizabeth City Hospital grew out of
La1
for some time between the Chamber of
Commerce and the American Medical
Association. The American Medical As
sociation is waging a campaign to pro-
mote rural health centers all over the
country. The Association has been
aroused by statistics showing the in
creased mortality in the rural districts
of the country and a lowered mortality
rate in the cities. The cities have hos
pitfalls. The rural districts haven't.
That's the whole story. And so with
in recent months the American Medical
Association is interesting itself in rural
health and to this end desires to see
every country doctor in America given
the same labratory, library and hospital
facilities afforded hist brother practi-
toner in the cities. It is declared that
we can not have efficient physicians
and surgeons in our rural regions until
these hospital facilities are afforded.
The American Medical Association ~in-
sists that a hospital at Elizabeth City
should afford every facility obtainable
in any large city and that part of the
equipment of such hospital should be
a complete medical library open to eY-
cry practitioner in the district.
There is no doubt about the need of
a hospital at Elizabeth City. Scores of
cases have gone from Elizabeth City
and it's immediate vicinity to Norfolk
hospitals within recent months. Often
the delay in transporting a patient to
Norfolk is fatal.
The hospital at Elizabeth City failed
several years ago because it was priv
ately operated and the private manage
ment could not harmonic with local
practitioners. 1t didn't fail because
there were not enough cases to keep it
going; it failed because most of the To-
cal medicos were disp1eased with the
MANAGEMENT and sent their patients out
of town. This could not happen were
the hospital operated as a community
proposition. Even tho some doctor
might get disgruntled he would hesitate
long time before setting his face
against the community and carrying his
cases out of town.