How to Keep the Doctor

Until Dr. Duncan Chalmers moved into town last November, Benton City, Wash. (pop. 1,200) had not had its own resident doctor for 24 years. After he had been there only a short while, the people in Benton City and the surrounding territory (including the fast-growing towns of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco) wondered how they had ever got along without him.

The seemingly tireless Chalmers was soon seeing 60 patients a day in his clinic and also doing a daily stint of surgery at the hospital in Prosser, 15 miles away. He started a medical program at Benton City's two schools, and somehow, between his office hours and his daily commuting, found time to make a good number of house calls. A soft-spoken but decisive man who had just finished five years of public-health work in Alaska, Chalmers made friends quickly. Said one businessman: "He's that rare type who worries more about his patients than about his fees."

Unfortunately, the businessman was too correct for comfort. Early last month, Chalmers, 46, called on Contractor Richard Cecil, a moving spirit in Benton City's clinic guild, and told him that the clinic was going broke. Reason: his patients paid their bills slowly, and Chalmers' long working days gave him no time for sending out reminders. Although he averaged $3,200 a month on paper, his patients were actually paying him only $1,200, some $1,000 less than he needed to meet his expenses.

Cecil quickly called a public meeting in Benton City and asked for $3,500, to help the doctor pay off his debts. At the first meeting, he raised over $600. Later meetings and a benefit supper got the total up to $1,200. Meanwhile, patients began to send in their checks -so well, at first, that Dr. Chalmers was able to pay back a $400 loan the clinic guild had given him.

Last week the money was still coming in. "The response," said Dr. Chalmers, "was overwhelming." But he was still in the red for the month of February by several hundred dollars.

To straighten out matters for the future, Chalmers has proposed that the people of Benton City and the surrounding towns equip a small, six-bed hospital-clinic. Chalmers will then rent the hospital, get another doctor to join him. He hopes to assure the hospital of some funds by qualifying it as a treatment center for industrial-hospitalization plans. An added proviso: the town will take over Dr. Chalmers' bookkeeping.

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