LISTEN UP
Tune in to the Times’ “Week In Review” podcast each Friday. Available on iTunes & arktimes.com
INSIDER, CONT.
THE
BIG PICTURE
Health THE
’S PUBLIC
of E HISTory aS a narraTIv In arkanS d dISEaSE HEaLTH an t, M.D. TaggAr by Sam , M.D.
H. Bates by Joseph Preface
HEALTH HISTORY On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the state Health Department comes Dr. Sam Taggart’s book, “The Public’s Health: A Narrative History of Health and Disease in Arkansas,” published by the Arkansas Times. Taggart will sign books at 3 p.m. Jan. 25 at WordsWorth and from 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m. at Dizzy’s. The book brings to light not just the battle against disease in Arkansas, but battles between monied interests and the common good when it came to health, a parallel in part to today’s situation. In 1879, the Arkansas Medical Society tried to get the legislature to create a State Board of Health, but was unsuccessful. The governor, who declined to recognize an unofficial board created by the medical society, changed his mind after an outbreak of yellow fever in Memphis. Still, he made no dollars available. One of the reasons the legislature and the governor resisted the idea of a board of health was suspicion of “university-trained doctors,” Taggart writes. It was not until 1881 that the legislature saw the wisdom of creating a state board to monitor disease, sanitary conditions and gather vital statistics. There’s nothing so persuasive as actual experience. Sen. Kie Oldham of Pulaski County, who was suffering from tuberculosis, was the father of the Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium, which opened in Booneville in 1910 and operated for 62 years. In the first 40 years of operation, there was always a waiting list. Oldham died of TB in 1911. Arkansas’s black population had no sanatorium until 1931; it was Dr. George Ish, the prominent Little Rock black physician, who “almost singlehandedly lobbied” to get the state to create the McRae TB Sanatorium in Alexander. In the early years of the 20th century, one in five people in Arkansas suffered from hookworm, thanks to going barefoot and the lack of outhouses to contain waste. The John D. Rockefeller Foundation had money to give to eradicate hookworm, but didn’t want to dole it out to a state board that was unfunded. Oddly, it was doctors who fought efforts to fund the state board because, as Taggart writes, “A common refrain on the part of the
medical community was that the prevention of disease reduced the patient load of the physician.” The book details Arkansas’s struggles with smallpox and diphtheria, citing the work of Ruby Odenbaugh Kinard, who traveled by buggy and horseback through Stone County to spread the word that folks should get immunized to smallpox and typhus. “She decided early on the only liquid she could drink in the homes was coffee because it was boiled and did not provide a typhoid risk.” Dr. J.T. Herron, doing induction physicals in Helena at the beginning of World War II, discovered syphilis in 52 percent of the men who wanted to be soldiers. Herron went on to administer the federally-funded Emergency Maternal and Infant Care program in Little Rock. Again, there were Arkansas doctors more concerned with money than patients: Taggart writes, “The notes of the Board of Health meetings and the various reports of the more conservative members of the Arkansas Medical Society indicate that the doctors had concerns that this attempt to provide services for the poor [pregnant women] would broaden and interfere with their practice of medicine — taking away potentially paying patients. Infant mortality in Arkansas was high, especially among black babies — which was one reason the medical society ignored the problem, Taggart reports. In the late 1930s, state board pediatrician Dr. Francis Rothert named a black Tuskegee-trained nurse, Mamie Hale, to work with black midwives on sterile methods (Rothert said that one country doctor told her that he always washed his hands after delivery). Mortality was reduced, but by 1954, black mothers and children were still three times more likely than whites to have complications. Taggart’s 21st century reflections address the continuing struggles of the Arkansas Health Department to provide health care to rural areas. He believes the department will, with its upgraded trauma system, community health centers, telemedicine and the like, improve health in areas with scant access to medical care. “It is also highly probable,” he writes, “before they have time to congratulate themselves another equally dreadful and dramatic problem will present itself.”
the help of the state’s Arkansas Development Finance Authority, create a bond-backed fund of up to $50 million for charter school use. Though charter schools have not received state facility money, they get a significant benefit in the state school-funding formula. State minimum foundation aid to regular school districts is computed after subtracting the per pupil value of 25 mills of local property tax revenue. In Little Rock, for example, that means state aid is about $3,700 per student because of what local property taxes produce. But the state pays $6,300 for every student in a charter school.
Main Street redevelopment buzz Doug Meyer tells the Times his Terraforma LLC real estate development company is converting 823 Main St., the former Peerless Engraving building, into Downtown Storage. It will be a climate-controlled facility for document storage and, particularly, extra closet space for the hoped-for rising tide of apartment and condo dwellers in the buildings being redeveloped downtown. Speaking of Doug Meyer: He figures prominently in one of the hottest rumors of the moment, that a redevelopment is planned of the Fulk Building at Third and Main, occupied by Bennett’s Military Supplies, a 146-year Little Rock fixture owned by Meyer’s wife, Sheree. One rumor has it that Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, the ad/PR firm, is looking at leasing the building as a new home. The firm, currently leasing on Capitol Avenue, is reportedly attracted to the developing “vibe” on Main Street — tech park, creative corridor, arts institutions and so forth. Here’s what CJRW said, in a statement from CEO Wayne Woods: “For several months, we have been taking a close look at what we will need in terms of facilities as the agency continues to develop in terms of services, technologies and professional staff. That assessment has included our current location in downtown Little Rock, as well as other options that there may be. The process is ongoing and there is no particular timetable for a final decision. Any decision will be based on what is in the best interest of our clients, our company and the community moving forward.” Meyer said he was bound by confidentiality. But he acknowledged being at work on a potential tenant for the Fulk Building and also for the building his Crystal LLC recently acquired across the street at 301 Main, where Mr. Cool has been a tenant. Whatever happens, he said be sure to mention that Bennett’s Military was going to stay in Little Rock, preferably on Main Street. www.arktimes.com
JANUARY 23, 2014
11