207. 7 Doctors and the Union City Clinic, 1920.

Blog Post Number 207.  

7 Doctors and the Union City Clinic, 1920.

News-Gazette, May 17, 1980.

  Before Union City Memorial Hospital was dedicated, May 24, 1950, hospital care in the town was provided at a 12-bed unit located at 702 West Division Street. The hospital was a frame house converted for medical purposes; and now it is owned by Fred Tibbetts, who lives next door. 

  But before that stage in health care development in Union City, there was a Union City Clinic. Located on the corner of Plum and Oak Streets across from the Methodist Church, the clinic in its time, the 20's, was an advanced concept.

  This was the time of the "family doctor," the do-it-all physician; not necessarily because the medical men had comprehensive abilities. It was more of a financial necessity for the doctors to offer all kinds of treatments. If they didn't - if they had said to their patients, " Sorry, I can't do that test," they might have lost their clients to one of the other doctors in town. Even the medical profession was not immune to competition.

  The story of the remarkable formation of a "Clinic" in Union City in 1920 by seven doctors is written by Frank HILL in a 1922 issue of American magazine.

  Hill described the decision of the doctors to join together, rather than engage in competition. He wrote, "Each of them would have liked to specialize in one line; to study that one line extensively."

  As it was, whenever they couldn't handle a special case, the doctors would ship them to a distant city to a specialist. They preferred to send clients away instead of giving up to their local competitors.

  The Great War - World War I - was the catalyst for the new idea, Hill wrote. The doctors, all of whom served in the war, were forced by the government to specialize. The cooperative spirit prevailed when they returned to this country.

  The doctors and their specialties, were F. Arthur ZELLER, general surgeon; Robert W. REID, X-rays and cystoscopy; Fred McK. RUBY, eye, ear, nose and throat; Leland K. PHIPPS, diagnosis and internal diseases; George H. DAVIS, obstetrics and children's diseases; W. DETRICK, genito-urinary and anaesthetic; Fred A. BEATTY, dentist. Doctor Ruby was born in Union City.

  Because of the difficulties of working out mutual business practice - one might be giving up business, another might profit unduly at his colleague's expense - the doctors sought legal help. They finally joined in a business trust, the seven doctors being members along with Atlas State Bank. Each doctor kept his own fees, furnished his own furniture, rugs etc., and they all paid into a general bank account their expenses for rent of the building at Plum and Oak Streets.

  Doctor Zeller was the head organizer, and he told Hill in 1922, "our hospital" was working well. "When we began to get together in Union City, we found that there was enough for the specialists to do right here; and now we handle every kind of case."

  Zeller touted the value of a clinic in raising the quality of health care. "A doctor practicing alone lacks the constant clash of minds and comparison of experiences that we enjoy here ." Doctors would travel to medical conventions, and upon their return, would report to the others at the clinic what they had just found out.

  The "hospital" apparently was a huge success. In 1921, Zeller told Hill, 400 patients were treated, and the mortality was only 1 percent.

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