Elissa Yount: Maria Parham’s change-of-life


We all knew there was change in the works for the Maria Parham Medical Center, but we were waiting to find out if the Duke University Medical Center or UNC Hospitals would be given the nod.

Our local medical center, which no one outside of Henderson seems to be able to pronounce correctly, is an integral and very important part of this community, and we should all hope it remains solvent and viable. The news this week would make it seem likely.

If you are my age and a white native of the county, chances are you were born at the Maria Parham Hospital on Chestnut Street. Fortunately, that was the only time I was a patient there. This was the era when the doctors lived near the hospital and had there offices very close by. Dr. Boyd lived directly across the street, Dr. Currin lived on Young Avenue, Dr. Newcomb lived on the corner of Charles and William Streets, and Dr. Royster lived on Chestnut Street. All of their offices were within close walking distance both to their homes and the hospital.

There was a Nurses’ Home next door to the hospital, and the James H. Parker wing had been added by the time my youngest sister was born. Years later the hospital moved to Ruin Creek Road, and in more recent time the new tower facility was erected.

Now the “not for profit” hospital is entering into a deal with the Duke University Medical Center and LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. to operate the 102-bed medical center. The very good news from this is that the debt owed by the Maria Parham Medical Center would be paid (if the deal goes through) and our hospital would remain in our community.

Another part of the deal, according to The News and Observer, is “$30 million would be used to create a foundation that would pay for new community programs and services.” The Daily Dispatch article reported that “approximately $30 million would be used to create a locally governed charitable foundation that would fund new programs and services in the community.”

The part about “locally governed” gives me pause. Our community does not do well in this arena. While other communities have all kinds of great projects and resources that have come to them from Golden LEAF funds, our community has lagged woefully behind. While other communities have used redevelopment money from HUD to improve the quality of neighborhoods, our community has lagged woefully behind. While other communities have used stimulus money and grants to advance future projects such as high speed rail, our community has lagged woefully behind. And I dare say that even the money Duke invested in our community with AdVance did not prove fruitful.

What we are lacking is a community vision. We appoint the same group of people to the same jobs and committees, and we keep getting the same tired results.

There will be a feeding frenzy if $30 million really comes to this community by way of a charitable foundation. There will be all kinds of jockeying and positioning and brainstorming for the purpose of getting special-interest hands on that money, and there will be very little thought given to the real needs of the community — only the needs that the “elect few” want or manufacture.

Here is my challenge to you: If there really are going to be public forums held on this hospital deal, go and ask questions.

If the deal does go through, contact Dr. Bill Fulkerson at Duke and tell him about the needs you see in this community, and I mean the real needs. He is the man in charge, and he is a good man with impeccable integrity as well as a wonderful doctor with a sense of social justice enforced by his wife, an ordained Presbyterian minister. I do not think he will bow to political pressure. Can you imagine what could happen if this duo really put their resources into helping our community?

There are things that need attention in this community that many of us with comfortable lives would never even dream of until we open our eyes. Maybe the cloud of having to sell the Maria Parham Medical Center can have the silver lining that our community so desperately needs.