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Medical Progress 1913 - 1984 Until 1913 Matagorda did not have a designated facility for health care. Most of the citizens' health problems were treated at home, by midwives, or by their personal physician, and sometimes the necessary equipment or miracle drug was available when the doctor visited. Sometimes the worst would happen because the doctor was too far away. In February of 1913, Dr. Claud P. Jones of Boston decided to improve his health, having suffered from asthma, and moved to Texas. He encouraged Genevieve Sharpless, a trained nurse from New Jersey, to join him and assist in starting a hospital. The Edgar P. Rugeley house, at the corner of Fourth Street and Avenue F was purchased by Dr. Jones in 1914, and long hours were consumed in converting the house into a home-the downstairs for the Jones family and a hospital, the upstairs for the patients. The operating room was situated on the north side of the building. Using an old fashioned boiler, the instruments and dressings were sterilized each evening. After that chore was completed, Miss Sharpless would go from room to room with white paint and a brush, touching up to keep the facilities spotless. After handling several severe emergency surgical cases, Dr. Jones decided that he was no surgeon; surgery made him nervous.46 In December, 1915, Dr. Jones wrote to Dr. J. C. Bloodgood, surgeon-in-chief of St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, to secure a surgeon. One of Bloodgood's young protιgιs was just finishing 3 1/2 years of internship and surgical residency and was ready to be "thrown out of the nest."47 Dr. Henry H. Loos was lured to Bay City by two factors: one, that medical practice was overcrowded in Baltimore because of two medical schools; and second, Dr. Jones met Dr. Loos's request for a double salary offer. So, on December 5, 1915, Dr. Loos set foot in Matagorda County. Other physicians who practiced at the Jones Hospital were A. S. Morton, J. E. Simons, S. A. Foote, P. E. Parker, T. C. Brooks, E. E. Scott, and Dr. Reed. With the outbreak of World War I, Dr. Loos was drafted and Dr. Jones enlisted. The hospital was sold to two trained nurses, a Miss Gordon and a Miss Royer, who operated it until the middle of 1922. After the war, Dr. Jones did not return to Bay City but moved in or near Pocatello, Idaho, and established another hospital there. Dr. Loos returned in 1918, and when his relationship with Miss Gordon was strained, he broke away from the Jones Hospital and began taking care of patients in various buildings before occupying the old Sutherland home on the corner of Marguerite Street and Avenue K. Dr. Loos's practice grew, and the number of physicians in the area increased. Having no place to perform operations, the new doctors requested the use of the Loos Hospital. Seeing the increased responsibility of caring not only for his own patients but also for other physicians' patients-as well as facing a $2,000 loss per year-Dr. Loos sought to find an alternative. He approached State Representative Paris Smith, about introducing a bill which would allow a bond issue for a community hospital in towns with certain populations. Matagorda General Hospital was one of the first hospitals in Texas to qualify under the new bill, and in 1940 the first facility was built on land donated by Victor L. LeTulle. The first method of management was through a lease arrangement. The first administrators were Mrs. Nellie Abshier and Mrs. Virginia Thomason. Mrs. Abshier handled the business while "Ms. Tommy" (as Mrs. Thomason affectionately was named) took care of the nursing.48 They leased the hospital from 1940-1945. Following these two women, Maggie McConathy was given the task of running the hospital-still under a lease agreement. She married Robert D. Poison and moved from Bay City in 1958.
Faced with another change in administrators and already having to expand the facility in 1945, the commissioners court felt that the health needs of Matagorda County could best be served by operating the hospital by a board of managers method rather than the lease method. A hospital board of seven members was appointed and assumed the operation of the hospital on October 1, 1958. Tom Siegler served as administrator from 1959 until 1960, and an expansion plan was begun. The bed capacity was increased to 76, and for the first time a separation of patients by diagnosis was instigated. There was a new obstetrics department and nursery. Medical/ surgical patients were still something of a mix. The main entrance was re-located on the east side of the building on Avenue H. At the same time the Bayview Hospital in Palacios was in a dilapidated condition and a new hospital was included in the expansion plans for that area. In 1960 both areas received new buildings: the Matagorda General Hospital in Bay City, which expanded services, and a complete new facility named for Dr. Joseph Ralph Wagner in Palacios. In 1960 Leonard Watson was appointed administrator at Matagorda General Hospital and, with the formation of a hospital district in May, 1965, Watson became the administrator of both Matagorda General and Wagner General. The Matagorda County Hospital District was created by the Texas Legislature with the boundaries of the district being the same as the county. This legislation gave the county authorization for taxation and for providing a hospital system for all its citizens. The district was also charged with the responsibility for furnishing hospital care to needy residents. A three-story structure housing Matagorda General was built in 1969, expanding the total bed capacity to 116. The main entrance was returned to 1115 Avenue G; medical and surgical beds were separated; and a six-bed Intensive Care Unit was included. Together with the hospital expansion, a 28-bed nursing home was added to the hospital district facilities. The geriatric unit was made possible through the Nora A. Freeman and Olivia E. Phillips Trust Fund. Watson served as administrator until 1971.
The hospital district moved forward under the direction of John Hayes from 1971 to 1974. Departments at Wagner General and Matagorda General were consolidated to achieve a streamlined method of operation and personnel policies were instituted on an equal basis for all district facilities. Steve Walters replaced Hayes in 1974. Two new services were added to the district during his tenure: the outpatient hemodialysis unit was opened in April, 1977 (then remodeled in 1982 to meet the increased patient load); and the second hospital-based Home Health System in the State of Texas was implemented in March of 1979. Another management decision was needed in 1983. Faced with severe financial difficulties and an everchanging government reimbursement system, the county commissioners and board of managers decided that a new direction was needed. Their decision to ally with a large institution was an effort to meet the county's health needs and at the same time to keep costs down. Memorial Hospital Systems in Houston was chosen from a variety of management programs. The administrator, Shannon Flynn, brought new insights into the county hospital program in 1984. Historic Matagorda County, Volume I, 252-255
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