Quality Healthcare Happens in Rural Places
Today, March 30, is National Doctors Day, and I’d like to share this photo of our Field Health System doctors. Some have lived in and served the Woodville/Wilkinson County community for decades. Others may not have longtime ties to our county, but they have chosen to come to our rural area and serve our community as well.
Lately, I’ve read several articles about rural Mississippi’s “lack of healthcare resources and critical care services” in this COVID-19 crisis. In fact, one WLBT article, discussing the infection rate per capita in rural areas vs. the state’s most populous areas, wrote “having lots of cases in rural counties means there’s a risk of those patients not receiving proper medical care” and claimed that Wilkinson County’s “nearest hospital is over the county line, and has few, if any, critical care services, like intensive-care beds.”
Let’s set a few things straight since fact-checking in journalism seems to be a dying art.
Field Health System in Centreville is actually divided by the county line. Part of the facility is in Wilkinson County and part in Amite County. Because the facility is deemed a Critical Access Hospital, there are no Intensive Care Unit beds; however, the facility does have ventilators and can take care of COVID-19 patients (if they aren’t already).
The above information is fact, confirmed for me by a spokesperson for Field Health System. While it’s on the southeast side of Wilkinson County, our more northern residents also have access to Merit Health in Natchez, and all of our residents are a 1- 1.5-hour drive from metropolitan Baton Rouge, where there are numerous healthcare facilities. Now I’ll give you some information that can’t be measured by certifications, equipment on hand, or numbers.
The doctors and other healthcare workers who service the Field Health System spend their days (and nights!) caring for their patients in clinics distributed all over the Wilk-Amite area as well as the hospital. They know many of their patients personally, not just as a name and statistics on a chart. They know their families, their children, their parents, their grandparents. They attend church with them. Their children attend school and play sports together. They frequent their small businesses. They care deeply about their patients’ needs on a level far greater than that at larger hospitals in metropolitan areas.
These doctors want the best for their patients and know when a patient’s medical needs would better be served by specialists or other facilities. Since moving to Woodville a year and a half ago, I have personally seen our largest intersection (Highways 24 and 61) twice used as a landing pad for helicopters transferring patients to larger hospitals better equipped to handle their needs.
While I have not had the pleasure of meeting all of these doctors, I have witnessed care given to both of my grandmothers by this fine system--one living her last days at the hospital with her doctor in tears because there was nothing more to be done, and the other being transferred to a specialist/facility in another area where she could be better served. I have heard similar stories from other Wilkinson County residents about the quality of healthcare they or their family members have received as well.
While Field Health System and its personnel are situated in a rural area, quality healthcare is here in Wilkinson County, and these doctors are passionate about giving their patients the best treatment--whether it turns out to be here or elsewhere. We thank you, Field Health System doctors, for your tireless service to our community.
