University Daily Kansan / Friday, March 3, 1989
5
Small-town practice comes to sad close
When a doctor leaves a small town, clients, remaining physicians suffer
by Jennifer Corser Kansan staff writer
Alan Adams has been a family doctor in Oakley, a town in Logan County, for five years. His wife grew up in Oakley. His friends are in Oakley.
"We have a lot of friends here," he said. "I like a small town."
Although he does not want to, Adams will move to St. Joseph, Mo., in the spring to practice medicine.
According to the Kansas Medically Underserved Areas Report, prepared by the Kansas Medically Underserved Areas Center, Logan County was critically underserved in 1988.
When Adams leaves, Logan County will have one physician serving its 3,171 residents and county hospital.
Adams likes being a small-town doctor. But unfortunately for Adams, a small town does not mean small malpractice insurance rates.
Adams said he was leaving Oakley because liability rates had increased in Kansas. Sixty percent of Adams patients have Medicare. Physicians increase rates for Medicare patients to cover the liability increases.
Larger practices have more cushion against financial changes in medicine, such as increased liability rates, Adams said. His practice in Oakley, with two partners, cannot provide this financial backing.
The number of Kansas counties medically underserved in 1988 increased to 65 from 57 in 1987. Of those, 58 are now critically underserved.
And Logan County could continue to be critically underserved in 1989.
Adams' partner, Richard Ohmart, will be the only physician to care for the people of Logan County after Adams leaves.
"I don't anticipate that anyone will die from lack of medical attention, but this will make it more inconvenient." Ohmart said.
Ohmart said he had practiced alone for 10 years before Adams came to Oakley. However, he now is 52 years old, which could make a difference in how he handles the situation.
"The older people ask me if I'm healthy or if I'm going to leave," he
said. "I'll still try to handle it, but it won't be so easy."
Ohmart said that although he and Adams were busy everyday seeing patients, they always could manage to see people who needed immediate attention. With Adams gone, this might not be possible, he said.
Many people in the county have to drive 45 miles to see a doctor, Ohrman said. If he were out of town or unable to see them, they would have to drive another 20 or 25 miles to get medical attention.
Ohmart said he worried about what he would do if three or four people were injured in a major car accident.
"There's no way one person can deal with that situation," he said.
deen with that situation.
Oakley is located near Interstate 70, said Rodney Bates, administrator of Logan County Hospital in Oakley. Accidents occur on 1-70 many times each year.
Most cities west of Salina are losing physicians, he said, and rural areas continue to be medically underserved.
However, malpractice liability costs both physicians the same amount.
Bates said malpractice liability costs for rural areas was part of the problem. If a woman has pregnancy complications in Oakley, the physician must go beyond his area of expertise to solve the problem because no specialists are in the area.
Also, a doctor in a small community does not have much free time. Patients often call the doctor late at night to ask questions.
A physician in Wichita has access to specialists when problems arise.
Bates said many people in the community had expressed concern about the prospect of having one doctor to serve the county.
"In small communities, the peole still view the doctor as a family doctor." he said.
"Anytime this happens in a community, there's a lot of frustration, accusations and general bad feeling," he said.
He is hopeful a replacement will be found.
"Certainly, we will try to recruit in a physician," Bates said.
Similar name could be key to forgeries Neighbor's checks go to wrong address
Bank checks sent by a student's mother to the wrong address may have been forged by the recipient. Lawrence police said yesterday.
So far, only about three checks have been forged, said Chris Mulvenon, Lawrence police spokesman. Together, the amount of the forged checks is less than $100.
by Angela Clark Kansan staff writer
KANSAN KLIPPER save $$$$
'What we usually do is once we have an insufficien, lost or stolen check, we zero code it into our system so that it won't accept it. It may have been just that they did it quickly.'
Y9
Bob Weigel Dillon's manager
Bob Weigel, store manager of Dillons at 3000 West 6th St., said that problems with forged checks didn't occur often.
"What we usually do is once we have an insulted, lost or stolen check, we zero code it into our system so that it won't accept it." Weigel said. "It may have been just that they did it quickly."
The trouble began when a KU student's mother sent him some checks from his out-of-town bank, but she sent them to the wrong apartments in Iceland. These were delivered to a neighbor with a similar name.
The student said that the neighbor received the checks on Tuesday and that the neighbor's roommates allegedly opened the package and took seven checks from one of the checkbooks.
At least two of the checks were cashed at Dillons stores, located at 3000 West 6th St. and 1740 Massa-St. Police reports showed.
The KU student said his roommate knew the neighbor to whom the checks had been errantly mailed and had seen the checks when he was visiting her.
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