VOL. ), NO. 3
JUNE, 1962
DURHAM, N. C.
'^Mr. Dukes,” North Carolina’s Busiest Doctor
Tlie members of the Duke Univer
sity iredieal (’enter commniiity real
ize the big'ness of the hospital’s Out
patient Department, but do you know
that most of the North ('arolinians
wlio come here from Wanteo or from
the mountains feel, when they arrive
at the clinic door, tliat they are fjfo-
infr to “the doctor at Mr. Dukes?”
Our clinic staff deserves a pat on the
back for creatiujj; this very personal
imaf;:e to its j>atients, for in reality
the Outj)atient Dei)artinent is a larj^e
and comi)lex orgranization.
(Since movinfr into its impressive
new winf>: in 1957 the clinic’s patient
load has grown fro n about 100,000
visits per year to 140,000 during
1961. It recjuires a staff of approxi
mately 85 peo])le (not including phy
sicians) and an annual operating
budget of .$375,000 to keej) the out
patient department a going concern.
Director of this department is Mr.
Ralph Drake. He is assisted by Mr.
Stanley Blwell, business manager of
the medical clinics, and Mr. Harry
Brown, business manager of the sur
gical clinics. It is the job of these
men to keep the staff of nurses, tech
nicians, clerks and orderlies working
as smoothly as.possible; to keep the
patients flowin-g through the clinics
as efficiently as possible; and to keep
up with the volumes of records that
such an operation entails. Respon
sible for the high (juality of medicine
offered in our Outpatient Department
are members of the senior .staff of
doctors. Each of the 11 principal
clinics (hematology, general medical,
obstetrics and gynecology, general
{>ediatrics, psychiatry, oral surgery,
ENT, eye, general surgery, ortho
paedic and urologjO plus the Emer
gency Room and the Employee
Health Oifice has its own medical di
rector. Members of the senior staff
also supervise each of the many sub
specialty clinics with staff members,
house staff' and medical students ro
tating tlii'ougli the clinics to ]>rovide
the ))hysicians necessary to see the
many patients.
Although the Outpatient Depart-
nu'iit is big, with an im})ressive array
of the latest e(iuii)ment and excellent
doctors, it still has a lu'art. in talk
ing with employees of the Ont])atient
l)e|)artinent, the concern for their
patients’ welfare keeps coming u])
again and again. It is small wonder
that so many people arrive in Dur
ham to see “the doctoi- at Mr.
Dukes,” confident that all of their
l>roblems—both physical and finan
cial—will be solved for them! Among
the staff' are many old-time, truly ded
icated ein]iloyees whose enthusiasm
and faithfulness nuike the unavoid
able waiting time for Datients more
tolerable. So many of the depart
ment’s staff' fall into this admirable
category that it is impossible to list
everyone, but a story on the clinics
would not be complete without a
word of recognition to several.
Miss Eleanor Stnbbert is in charge
of the staff who interviews all of the
new patients. On her slioidders falls
the responsibility of deciding w'here
the patient should go and what their
financial ability to ])ay is. IMi-s. Felcie
Balance does such an excellent job in
supervising the laboratory that dire
consequences are predicted if she
were ever to leave her job! Mrs. Tva
Cain, who w-as transferred from nurs
ing in the Medical Clinic to Employee
Health, has done an outstanding job
there of reorganization. The Emer
gency Room—part of the Outpatient
Department—is efficiently run by
Mrs. Lillian Mason who \vorked for
many years on the ob-gyn floor. Miss
Gladys Barbour, who takes the clinic
patients’ x-rays, is one of those un
usual individuaJs who enjoys her
work so much that she has to be sent
home once a year for a vacation. And
tlien there is ]\Iiss Hallie Christian
whom an unidentified source claims
runs the orthopaedic clinic for the
house staff. As long as there are casts
that need to he taken care of. Miss
Christian—with the able assistance
of her orderly, “Buck” I’atterson, is
on th(‘ job no jnatter what the tinu*.
And finally though recently retired,
all of the outpatients personnel
fondly remember the many years of
faithful service of Miss Lillian Ad
kins and Miss Jamie Niblock.
IIow' does the Outpatient Depart
ment fit in with the other services of
fered at Duke I\Iedical Center? Its
])urpose is to take care of patients
who can be treated on an outpatient
basis and who cannot afford to be
cared for by the Private Diagnostic
('liuics. The medicine offered here is
not free, although almost all of the
care is given below cost. The average
collection per visit is $2.02 while the
cost to the hos])ital is $6.50. This
figure does not incliule the cost of
supplying the services of the doctors.
That is charged to the medical school
budget. In a large part the liospital
deficit is covered by income created
in the private clinics. Incidentally,
part of this deficit residts from the
large employee health service offered.
Last year this service examined 900
new employees, gave employees 4000
immunizations, and was visited by
emnloyees 30,000 times.
Bach new patient coming to the
Duke Medical Center Outj)atient De-
])artment is interviewed and a de
tailed family and financial record
taken. This initial interview deter
mines whether the patient can be tak
en care of by this department or
whether he should be referred to the
private clinics. ]\Iiss Stubbert could
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