Another Reason Asheboro Has Had A Tough Time Recruiting Pediatricians

Yesterday we talked about the REAL reason Asheboro/Randolph County has had trouble recruiting Pediatricians.

The reasons go by the names of Bob Morrision and Steven Eblin.

Vice President Joe Biden was in Faison today at Goshen Medical Clinic . . . promoting a Federal stimulus package that will help bring more doctors to the area.

Now I have some experience with Goshen Medical. It is the Federal Clinic that bought out the hospital-owned clinic in Duplin County (eastern NC - just north of Wilmington) where I was working several years back. I actually stayed on for six months to help transition until a newly-recruited newbie Ped fresh-out-of residency (and obliged to a federal service obligation like the one I honored in Asheboro) arrived.

It's about a 2-3 year cycle.

The very nice thing about Goshen's clinic and its administrators (Greg Bounds is a real mover & shaker) . . . indeed, about Duplin County . . . is that they recognize the doctors that come to these rural/impoverished areas are most certainly NOT "a dime a dozen" . . . ergo they appreciate them/threat them very well.

For the record, after the transition, I was offered the opportunity to stay on at Goshen . . . with a permanent position . . . but elected to move on.

You see, I've always had my heart set on coming home. Committing to one impoverished area when my permanent home is located in a "dying" one never made any sense.

Again, for the record, the reason Randolph Hospital was taken off the list of sites eligible for Federal assistance from programs like the NHSC (National Health Service Corps) was because of what Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin did to Drs. Mary Johnson and (indirectly) Laurie Anderson (who could not/would not stay in Asheboro unless I did).

In other words, boys and girls, the Federal government determined that the complaint I sent to Secretary Shalala in 1999 (about my experience at Randolph Medical Associates) was not "libel".

Of course, that did not stop Randolph Hospital from putting me and my family through some more hell. I'm told that some folks in high places (country-club types) found it all amusing . . . legally pounding the Pediatrician who dared talk back to the mill-town gods was almost like sport.

And again, fine upstanding, well-named/well-placed "friends" stood by and watched all of that without so much as lifting a finger or opening their mouths.

I know I keep harping on that aspect of the experience, but I just have no respect for it whatsoever . . . especially when those same people routinely pontificate about their small-town/Christian values in the local newspaper.

Here's the point: Perhaps if the folks running Randolph Hospital (and by that I mean Board members) saw the light and got rid of the overpaid, over-rated executives that (1) used them to lie to patients and (2) wasted Federal resources by driving good Pediatricians out of Asheboro, maybe the Federal government might drop some stimulus money on Randolph County.

At this point, with a doctor-wronged in a Federal program blogging her heart out about what happened to her in Asheboro, the record of Morrison & Eblin is probably a sticking point for the Feds.

And if it's not, it should be.

As an aside, one of the best restaurants on the planet, Southern Exposure, is located in downtown Faison. I've always been amazed a the diamonds you could find in the rough in Eastern North Carolina.

Three words: Fried Green Tomatoes.