Health Care...
Immediately after World War I, an outbreak of influenza swept around the globe. The influenza pandemic of 1918 to 1919 killed between twenty and forty million people worldwide. Over half a million in the United States were killed, ten times the number of Americans killed in service during World War I.
Known as the Spanish flu, the disease quickly infected troops throughout Europe and the United States helping to spread the infection broadly. By October 1918, as 8,000 cases of influenza were reported in North Carolina, Governor Thomas W. Bickett stated, “Our state is in the throes of the worst epidemic we have had for more than a generation.” Many schools and state facilities were closed due to the influenza outbreak.
The effect of the flu epidemic coupled with a flood of returning war veterans from Europe, many afflicted with tuberculosis (TB), resulted in the construction of health facilities across western North Carolina. The mountain region was believed to be a particularly healthful area that promoted swift recovery from TB due to its favorable weather conditions and clean, healing air. One of the largest facilities built was the Oteen Veterans Administration Hospital near Asheville. Completed in 1919, Oteen was the only Veterans Administration hospital in the southeast that specialized in treating respiratory ailments.
Good Health Care...
World War II also had a profound effect on health care in North Carolina.
An alarming number of men, over fifty percent, were rejected for military service during World War II for health reasons. A lack of sufficient hospital locations and inadequate health services drew much needed attention to the condition of health care in the state.
Prior to 1945, North Carolina suffered from a severe shortage of hospitals in rural communities. Of the forty-eight states in the nation, North Carolina ranked forty-fifth in the number of physicians, with only one doctor for every 1,300 people. In 1946, in an effort to improve its state health care system, North Carolina initiated the Good Health Program. Funding assistance was provided by the Hill-Burton Hospital Construction Act, a federal act designed to provide funds for hospital facilities and personnel in rural areas. Frank Porter Graham, president of the consolidated University of North Carolina, noted the program had two main objectives:
* To provide more hospitals and rural health centers;
* To train more doctors, nurses and medical technicians for those hospitals and centers.
The Good Health Program became one of the greatest social reform movements in North Carolina history and had a major impact across the state. Before World War II, health care appropriations totaled about $350,000. By 1952, health care appropriations had grown to $1,150,000. Large-scale growth in North Carolina’s rural hospital construction continued well into the 1950s. The rural health crisis illuminated by the war spurred significant health care reform and improved the lives of countless North Carolinians.
