Above, Dr. L. E. Wheat in 1924. By that time, his hospital had been moved to Lewisburg.
These hospitals and their predecessors responded to the medical necessities of the time. In the 1920’s through the early 40’s medicine was relatively low tech and could be administered in a small facility efficiently at low cost. Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 but one has to remember that antibiotics did not come into general use until the 1940’s and the pharmaceutical armamentarium was tiny when compared with today. Physicians were still relying on naturally obtained medications such as aspirin and digitalis. Successful treatment depended on sterility and tender loving care which could be administered anywhere. Most of the diseases encountered by residents of Marshall County during the early to mid twentieth century could be handled by a competent general practitioner especially if the physician had a hospital for admission of the more serious cases. Even more people could be served if the family doctor delivered babies. Some of the doctors in Lewisburg performed general surgery so their hospitals covered the complete spectrum of medical practice from pediatrics to geriatrics. In this way the hospitals in Lewisburg prospered. Medicare was introduced in the sixties which added a measure of governmental support. These were the halcyon days of the small hospital but the explosion of medical progress, which started in the 60s and continues today with ever increasing velocity now threatens their existence. Medicine fragmented into specialties with specialists only practicing their particular branch of medicine. Specialists tended to work in larger population centers to guarantee a sufficient patient load. Even the specialties divided into sub-specialties. The amount of new information accumulating each day is staggering and no one person could have a complete knowledge of all the aspects of medicine.
The treatment of many illnesses improved to the point that many cases which were once admitted to hospital are now treated as outpatients. ( eg; pneumonia. ) Patient care has become more technical and the equipment involved is highly sophisticated and more expensive. In 1920 a physician would have little more than a stethoscope, sphygmomanometer (blood pressure machine) ophthalmoscope, a microscope and possibly access to an x-ray machine and that was it. All affordable. Now physicians rely on CT and MRI scans as well as sophisticated ultrasound and nuclear medicine scans. All expensive. To provide a satisfactory standard of care, the community hospital has to invest huge amounts of money in these devices and keep them up to date. Add to that the new instruments in surgery and anesthesiology, and soon it becomes impossible for a small facility to do this. Dr William Taylor had the foresight to recognize this inevitable trend and in 1968 he sold his hospital to Hospital Corporation of America, which was a company being formed in Nashville by Dr. Thomas Frist. Taylors Hospital became the second hospital in the HCA nascent chain, the idea being that a hospital group could better handle the costs of modernization. As we know now, HCA became a giant and Nashville became a major center of the hospital industry. Of all the many hospitals in Lewisburg, only Taylor’s Hospital survived. By 1984 Marshall County was back to one hospital; Taylor’s Hospital was re-named Lewisburg Community Hospital. The presence of a hospital in your community meant you did not have to be transferred for less serious conditions which removed the risk of transportation and delay in treatment. Americana 81