Published: May 10, 2007 02:15 pm      

Guest commentary: Quality care can be obtained right here

I can’t remember ever reading a whole page newspaper advertisement for anything, anywhere, until recently, when I read the ad published by Navarro Regional Hospital, and was astonished by the amount of revenue it provides to Corsicana’s inhabitants in wages, hard and soft merchandise purchased locally, and most of all in taxes. Of course I was aware that Trinity Mother Frances’ activities here were not taxed — they enjoy tax free status, of course, like many other companies have, at least at first, special deals on utilities, tax exemptions, sometimes very large. Collapse or even shrinkage of NRH would be calamitous to all of us.

Let me redirect my thought patterns briefly to what I call “Corsicana Medical Syndrome,” a chronic local condition which causes many Corsicanans to go to Dallas, Tyler or Waco (Temple, Houston) for anything more serious than a hangnail or pimple. That definitely takes revenue from all of us and more often than not is appropriate only if we lack the local professional specialties (neurosurgery springs to mind, since I had two spinal surgeries in Dallas). Facts are, that unless some unhealthy financial duels occur and drive them away, we have a wealth of fine doctors in Corsicana that can do almost anything we need, but they’re missing out on revenue, too, largely to the “Corsicana Medical Syndrome.” I had a neurosurgeon in Dallas read my MRI and made an appointment for me, that day, to have an aneurysm on my aorta repaired, and regaled me with the severity and enormity of this particular surgery. I told him no, that Dr. Robert Kingman in Corsicana could do it, and I was on my way, with a 6 centimeter aortal bulge when 4 centimeters was the limit. With Kingman’s skill and Dr. Kent Rogers’ aftercare, I made it just fine. I’ve since had a half dozen Kingman surgeries and everything came out fine (pun intended).

For a number of reasons a substantial number of fine physicians at Mother Frances Clinic here have “jumped” ship — some moving away, some officing elsewhere, and many waiting for Navarro Regional Hospital to open its 40,000 square foot physicians office building. From what I hear off the street, they probably should begin construction on another one, to hold the other doctors “jumping ship” and other doctors who might be attracted by the many charms of our city. I’ve had many affluent citizens, including doctors, tell me that they were attracted by the safe, small town atmosphere here, within an hours drive from the Metroplex, like the best of two worlds. I thoroughly agree, and hope any readers begin to agree with me, if they don’t already, that we need to nourish our local medical bounties by keeping our physical problems at home. If your doctor senses a condition best dealt with by specialists out of town, he would tell you so, like one local one who referred me to a surgeon who replaced my entire shoulder — a highly specialized performance, not available here at the time.

I told Navarro Regional CEO Fred Woody a couple of weeks ago that I’d seen many favorable changes in the last year, in all aspects ranging from ER, to nursing care, to physical therapy.

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Bob Frisby is a resident of Navarro County.