Small town health care: who has had GOOD experiences?

[Flaxbee]

We are really, really, really displeased with our local health care, and have heard many horrible things since we've started asking around.

I don't want to move to a big city - and a big city is really no guarantee of a good hospital/good doctors, anyway. By big city, I mean NYC, LA, Atlanta, DC - areas I've lived before. Don't want to go back.

So, who here lives in a smallish town or mid-sized city with good health care? Good doctors, not ones who make you want to turn tail and take your chances on your own rather than stay in the hospital?

We are *hopefully* going to move soon, and I am shopping for areas. Any input from my fellow DUers?

[mwooldri]

1. Bad healthcare in NC (since your profile says you're from here)? Which part?

Duke, UNC and Wake Forest are some of the best hospitals in the country.

Wake Forest specifically is probably one of only four hospitals in the USA that I would trust my son's health condition with. My son has bladder exstrophy where his bladder was born on the outside. He was treated by an excellent surgeon (Dr Hutcheson) under the guidance of one of the best in the country (out of Seattle Children's, I forget his name) but he was replaced by Dr. Anthony Atala, out of Boston. His unit is into tissue re-engineering and they've been growing new bladders using existing bladder tissue rather than manufacturing them out of intestine. As a result they've been getting children with pretty much near-normal continence and working like regular, instead of having to do alternative methods of draining the bladder (peeing out of your belly button via a catheter as an example). WFU paid a lot of money and attracted him and his whole team down here to NC - I guess we got very very lucky.

In addition we have a great family physician - ex military - almost in the tradition of the NHS back home where we had one family doctor for pretty much everything. Ironically I picked him because he has the same name as an actor I like (Stephen Fry) but even this whimsical decisioning on my primary care physician has turned out great.

Mark.

[Flaxbee]

12. ooooh, we're in a western hicksville bible-thumping, faith-healing

town which shall remain nameless. Asheville is about 1.25 hours away, and I need to investigate their health care a bit more - we might just move closer. Hendersonville is a HUGE retirement community, so I have a feeling the health care resources are probably pretty good. I know the Raleigh area has Duke and UNC, but I hadn't thought about Wake Forest. We moved to NC from VA, and I don't want to go back to the sprawl that is NoVa, and my husband does NOT like Charlottesville for reasons I have yet to understand. So I'm hoping to find an area in NC we can both agree upon.

I'm glad to hear Wake Forest has such a good doctor for your son! :hug: Thank you very much for your input.

[mwooldri]

14. Well I have a suggestion for you...

If you like NC...
If you like where you live now (kind of)...

Then may I suggest: Mt Airy, NC?

Countrified enough, hilly but not mountainous, small yet big enough for most people. And not too far from Winston-Salem and Greensboro - also not huge big towns but big enough...

Of course you'd have to factor in things like jobs, schools, location, amenities you need...

Just a thought, Mark.

[Connonym]

2. My medium-sized town in WI has an excellent hospital system

What you need to look for is somewhere with a "regional care" or "tertiary" hospital. To be at that level the facilities will have specialists on staff for almost all situations. The biggest problem I see with community hospitals is that so many of them can't handle anything more complicated than an appendix or a normal childbirth. Everything requiring specialist care gets transferred to a bigger hospital. I transcribe for some hospitals in Tennessee and I'm astounded by how often they have to transfer the patients to a different hospital because they don't have the proper staff to handle complicated medical situations. Not only does that seem wasteful it also seems dangerous to me -- so many situations where treatment outcome is greatly improved depending on how quickly care is given (like a stroke for example). I feel really fortunate that we have a really good healthcare system here.

[Lars39]

5. Little TN town I grew up in used to have a decent hospital.

The county sold it, and the hospital has since changed hands about 4 times. Now everybody gets shipped to Paris or Jackson after being stabilized. They can't keep good doctors. The big thing now in the county is being signed up for the helicopter life flight. :eyes:

[Connonym]

6. No wonder I have a hell of a time finding a reference containing the doctor's names

you grow up near Dyersburg?

[Lars39]

10. Kids are there during school.

Seems like Jackson or Memphis is where you get shipped to from Dyersburg.
Home was a little farther east.:)

[Connonym]

11. heh, I'd be much better at my job if I could figure out all the small places around there

Milan?

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I live in a tiny town and really like our docs and nurses at the health center. Good people

[Wapsie B]

4. Urbana, Illinois has the Carle Clinic, a fine facility in it's own right.

Iowa City has the University of Iowa Hospitals with some of the best specialists in the world. Then of course you could always move to Rochester, Minnesota and have fine care as well.

[mopinko]

7. chicago

yeah, we are a big city. but we have some of the best healthcare in the world. and it is a great place to live.

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Small town here

Best dentist I have ever had.
Wonderful allergist

Have yet to to find a GP/internist x( ...have been back in this small town for 3.5 years.
Am going to ask around to some of the teachers I work with...maybe get a good recommend.

[fizzgig]

9. tough for me to say, considering i've never had any serious medical problems

the hospital system in my city (we're about 150,000 in n. colorado, but there are a lot of little towns surrounding us) has consistently received awards and is the leading regional hospital.

before i lost my job, i went to the hospital's family clinic and never had any problems. i've also made a few trips to the er and no complaints there, either. before i started going to the clinic, i went to an internal medicine clinic. i only saw physician's assistants, but they always listened and weren't afraid to say tell me i should see a doc or specialist (that was the case with my psych meds).

[Flaxbee]

13. Hi Everyone - I got a call from my sister and haven't been

able to participate in this thread the way I wanted to -- will get back to everyone individually tomorrow, and I really appreciate the replies.

:hi: and thanks.

[sasquatch]

15. Dayton's pretty good

Not the best in the world but surprisingly adequate.

[ccharles000]

16. Here in Greensboro NC it is ok.

[Missy Vixen]

17. Our doctor rocks the free world

We live in a small town thirty miles east of Seattle. Our (GP?) doctor is the best. I will go to him as long as he's practicing. He not only keeps up on all the cool new stuff, he listens, and he is willing to make a change. He's practicing in a town of 5600; let's just say the big-name medical clinic in town lost 90% of their patients when he went out on his own.

For example: DH has Type II. He was also on a drug I was VERY nervous about, prescribed by an endocrinologist who just didn't seem to give a shit about the abundant negative studies and patient outcomes. DH fired the endo and his care is now managed by the doc, who's doing an amazing job.

If you lived here, you'd want to go to him, too.
Julie