NC Health Care Shortage

1928 - Institutional Event

As America headed into the Great Depression, North Carolina was already suffering from a severe shortage of healthcare services. Statistics from 1928 tell the story: one doctor for every 1,244 people in the state. One hospital bed for every 382. And a rank of 48 out of 50 states for health care access. As in the past, shortages were the worst in rural areas.

Too few physicians and poor management of childhood diseases took a toll on the health of North Carolinians. By the early ‘40s, the state led the nation in the number of World War II draftees rejected for poor health. Clearly, the health system needed to change.

In 1944, a commission appointed by Governor J. Melville Broughton recommended funding for a four-year medical school at Chapel Hill, an on-campus teaching hospital and an expansion of medical facilities throughout the state.

Information provided by BCBSNC.

Open-air surgery in Avery County. With few hospitals, rural doctors often had to treat patients under primitive conditions. Photo courtesy of the N.C. Collection, University of N.C. at Chapel Hill

In the early 1940s, North Carolina had too few physicians, high infant mortality and rampant childhood diseases.