Betty and Dave Speir

See also Vignette

DAVE SPEIR
Fomer Trustee
Pitt County Memorial Hospital

BETTY SPEIR
Former Trustee
Pitt County Meomorial Hospital Foundation
Trustee East Carolina University

March 23, 2000

Interviewer: Beth Nelson

Beth Nelson: Let's talk about pertinent aspects of your background. Dave, we will start with you.

Dave Speir: I became concerned about the hospital when the old hospital was still operating. I used to go over there and visit people and I would see patients in the hallway on beds with no dignity and there was very little privacy. It worried the dickens out of me and I became concerned about Pitt County and its responsibilities to the people who live in the County and their illness, so as the new hospital came along we, of course, supported it very deeply, as much as we could. There was a Trustee from Bethel who was retiring and I spoke to Bob Martin, who at that time was on the County Board of Commissioners, and I told him I would like to serve the hospital because I am interested on what was going on there. He said he would see what he could do and so the Commissioners appointed me as a member of the Board and I found it to be the most satisfying civic endeavor I have had.

Beth Nelson: How many years were you on the Board?

Dave Speir: Eight years. I think they are on a little bit longer now. I went on when Jack Richardson was still the Administrator and shortly thereafter Jack resigned and Dave McRae became the Administrator, I guess I should say the President. Mrs. Lucido was right there a long time and I enjoyed working with her. She is a very lovely lady. She and I share a Yankee heritage. We were good friends. I was always taken with the quality of the staff, their dedication and their knowledge and it didn't seem to be that any problem that came up that the staff wasn't able to handle. They were able to blend so well with the new ideas and techniques of the medical school. I think it's amazing because if there were any fights or any controversies, I wasn't aware of them. It was just coordinated and I think it speaks to the genius of Dave McRae that he was able to handle that thing. I was particularly impressed with Debbie Davis, Ralph Hall and Kathy Barger. They were wonderful people, I thought, everyone of them. Then there was the guy who was head of the computer system, Ed McFall, who was a very dedicated guy. He did his best to keep us modern in that regard which was very expensive. I always used to kid him about how much money he spent every time and there never seemed to be enough.

Beth Nelson: Betty, please talk a little bit about how you came to be involved with the hospital?

Betty Speir: The first involvement I had with the hospital was not in the one that is the present County Office Building but in visiting a cousin who had an appendectomy and I think the hospital was over on Johnston Street. I remember it as being very dreary, I was a child at the time. I decided at that point that I did not want to go to the hospital.

I suppose the second thing would be hearing my father talk about the necessity for a new hospital and I remember him saying and "so and so said we got a hospital and we don't need another hospital". That was the one, of course, that was built on Fifth Street. That hospital was a marvelous thing for us at the time when it opened because it was different and new and just a wonderful addition to helping Pitt County. Many things happened and we outgrew that hospital as Dave has mentioned. I did have a child born there though and so I can speak to the good service that was there. I think probably, and my father's name is on that plaque, and I think he was Chairman of the County Commissioners at that time. That is in the lobby over in the Fifth Street building.

The next involvement I had was with the Gifts Committee and I'm not sure what year that started but I remember we were meeting in the annex of the Fifth Street Hospital at the time when we first started that. Kenneth Dews and Harry Leslie were there and I think Bill Watson, Joe Clark and Bill Glidewell. I think they were the ones that were the original members of the Gifts Committee. That later became the Hospital Foundation. It was the Foundation by 1989; I have some information that I will be glad to share with you. I was on that Foundation through 1992. It was amazing to watch the growth of that. We started out happy to receive $50 and $100 gifts and it grew in terms of hundreds of dollars and, of course, before I left we were quoting success in terms of millions of dollars. It was just an extremely interesting organization. I suppose it was about 1990 or 1991 that we went with a professional fundraising organization. That really opened our eyes as to the possibilities that were there.

Dave Speir: I can remember that they furnished the rooms for the new hospital. They would place your name on the door. That was a halfway decent gift as I recollect.

Beth Nelson: I had an interesting conversation with Ralph Hall and Charles Gaskins. The two of them were telling me that when they were getting ready to move in the new hospital they had hoped to be able to have new furnishings for all of the ground floor and they came up short by about $18,000, I think, to furnish the rooms. Robert Monk came in and wrote a check for the remaining eighteen rooms which meant that the entire first floor had new furniture.

Betty Speir: We had enough for some of the rooms but I remember being short for the remaining eighteen rooms. I remember that well, as it was a happy day.

Beth Nelson: Was the room you funded furnished in your names?

Dave Speir: No, it was in honor of Betty's father. The check was a company check but it came from us but the company got the credit for it. We had meant for it to be from Betty and I.

Beth Nelson: Tell me a little bit about some of your thoughts about what the hospital has meant to Pitt County and the region.

Betty Speir: Had we not had an up-to-date hospital we would not have a medical school. It was a perfect fit and Leo Jenkins recognized it. We would have had fewer doctors and few less people employed in the medical area and we would have a different town and a different county. It wouldn't be the place to live that it is now. I thought that we were very fortunate in having the administrators and the previous Trustees who had pushed to see that the hospital was a modern functioning facility because with that we were ready for the match that came with the medical school. It has meant everything to us and to our region.

Beth Nelson: Tell me, can you think of any instances, people you have known over the years, who historically would probably have had to go elsewhere for their healthcare, maybe somebody in your family or a neighbor or somebody who because we had the type of services we have here they were able to stay here. Can you think of anybody who this really meant a lot to?

Betty Speir: I can't think of anybody in this County that it hasn't meant a lot to. The people in this town and our friends take advantage of the medical services that are available in Greenville now as opposed to going to Chapel Hill or to Duke. If there is a rare instance they may go to Duke or to Chapel Hill but on the other hand, there are people who come from Raleigh and Chapel Hill down here.

Dave Speir: I remember that in 1960 I had to go to Duke which was a problem for Betty. At that time I was up there for a week or two and our children had to stay with Betty's mother and dad who were in Rocky Mount so that she would be able to be with me during my recovery. I was mighty grateful for Duke Hospital but I think I would have been just as well taken care of here in Greenville now had the same situation applied.

Betty Speir: At that time we were not able to attract specialists in most areas. Think how recently it has been that this wonderful facility for correcting heart defects has come about in Pitt County and the marvelous people we have in Ranny Chitwood and others.

Beth Nelson: Let's talk about some of the events, some of the obstacles, the things that really kind of tested people support, tested people commitments, to this hospital.

Betty Speir: The most recent is when the hospital became a private, non-profit facility.

I think this was necessitated by the events that are occurring in medicine. If we were to be competitive, if we were to keep the excellent doctors that we had attracted, it was very necessary that we be competitive. It was very necessary that we change also. There was a lot of misunderstanding I think and we have some very conservative Commissioners, some who were quite aware of the problems and wanted to speak to them. Fortunately, the final result was that we could became private. Had we not had that I think it would have been very difficult.

Beth Nelson: What do you think turned that around? It has been an issue and I remember it coming up and in the research we have done it has come up any number of times over the years and it seems like there was never enough consensus to make it happen. What do you think turned the tide this time?

Dave Speir: I think the fact we were trying to do business without being able to keep anything secret. All of our computations and everything, because we were public, were available to our competition so that we were trying to do business giving our competition all of the facts and yet we would know nothing of the facts that the competition held in their hands.I think trying to do business in that atmosphere, trying to coordinate different hospitals in the region as we have so successfully done, which I think is almost a minor miracle because we have the communities all around us cooperating with us and asking for our help which indicates their faith in our hospital and our Trustees. I think that is a remarkable practice.

One of the big items that I remember as a member of the Board of Trustees was when Chitwood came to town. I believe at that time Reid Hooper was the Chairman of the Board. We tried so hard to be sure that Chitwood had healthy patients so that when the first ones that were operated on, the potential for success was very, very good so that we wouldn't have any premature deaths in our program, I'll put it that way. Of course, the risk was always there but we programmed it as best we could so that Chitwood would shine and the hospital would shine. Of course, he followed through and came through beautifully.

Betty Speir: I think it was generally, the stubbornness of those people who believed very strongly in their refusal to give up on trying even though it meant the end of political careers for one or two people but nevertheless, they thought it was the right thing to do and they continued to back that.

Dave Speir: Yes, I think Ed Bright sacrificed a whole lot for that hospital. I think he felt a personal slap in the face with his election. Ed Bright is a very talented man who served the County well and the hospital well. I served on the County Development Board with Ed Bright and he lives up to his name and he is a big help in everything he does.

Betty Speir: I think everybody who comes to the Board of Commissioners brings a new insight and special gift, however. But I thought that Ed Bright certainly made a difference.

I am on the Board of Trustees of East Carolina University and one of the early things that we did was vote in support of this. I remember at the time there were Trustees who brought up the question of is it fair to other hospitals that are privately owned and that we would be in competition with them. That was an issue that had to be faced but the Board did finally unanimously support the issue.

I remember Charles Franklin was very helpful in coming to many of the local meetings. He lives in Elizabeth City. He is a Trustee who was in charge of the Health Sciences Committee for the Board of Trustees. He was very instrumental in promoting stronger ties between the two Boards, the Hospital Board and the Board of Trustees. He is still a member of the Board of Trustees and is the first vice chairman. Jordy Whichard is the present chair of the Health Sciences Committee. At the time, Charles Franklin made many night trips over here in support of this and made very special presentations. You will need to talk to Jordy Whichard and also his father David Whichard who were both instrumental in seeing that this hospital had the support that it needed.

Dave Speir: I had one argument with the Administration one time. They brought up the fact that we were very short on nurses and we were hiring some nurses from Canada. The suggestion was made that we ought to raise the salaries at this point where it would be attractive to nurses from Kinston, Ahoskie and other areas around so that we could get our nurses because we were short. I said at the time that I thought that was a terrible mistake and that all we would do was increase the cost of nursing all around for all the hospitals and alienate those hospitals with whom we were trying to get cooperation. Instead, we decided to publicize the need for nurses by going to the high schools around and getting young men and women interested in the nursing profession and showing them what could be done for them in the future. As a result, things worked out pretty well. We got over shortage after awhile because of East Carolina and Pitt Community College but it was dicey there for awhile. I think that was a mistake that can be made very easily.

Betty Speir: I am connected with another nursing facility up in the Triangle area and am very much aware of how difficult it is to keep nurses. They have a very real problem up there. To keep an adequate, well-trained staff is very difficult.

Beth Nelson: What about the other big events that I recall from looking back in the archives?

Dave Speir: The new Heart Center is a pretty big event, I think. I participated on a study group under the leadership of Ralph Hall wherein we went to various hospitals around the country. I remember we went out to Iowa to one hospital out there that was pretty special. Another hospital down in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the Children's Hospital is - the Shriners Hospital. We went down there and saw what these hospitals offered in their various styles and the architectural modifications that they had. Then we came back and we discussed it and Ralph Hall came up with the final facts and figures but I think that new Heart Center is very successful. It's an indication of how the Board is drawn into the planning of the hospital and its staff, which makes the Board members, feel important. I think it's important too because it gives everybody an idea and brings the community support together.

Beth Nelson: Tell me about the move to bring the medical school here. Some of the things, some of the people, some of events that you recall that might have been what helped turn the tide in favor of this.

Betty Speir: Jim Hunt was very instrumental in that and thought it was very important for the East. He helped tremendously. Of course, Ed Monroe, Leo Jenkins, it was a joint effort. I think it wouldn't have happened had we not gone through the battle for the University status and found that it could be accomplished.

Dave Speir: I think the hospital is a partnership with the Pitt County citizens. Although it is more private not-for-profit, I think it's important that the Pitt community still be involved with the hospital.

Betty Speir: Down at the opening of the new hospital in Nags Head. What is so important to those people is that they have never had a hospital and the fact that we can give that support and yet it is important to us too because the people involved here and they keep physicians who deal with very difficult situations busy. It's going to be a real challenge to keep nursing personnel and support personnel. Just providing medicine and technology which we have started and have done well with but people are always ever demanding.

Dave Speir: I don't know how much the hospital is involved with its research projects for the medical school. I certainly think it's important that those research projects go on and be supported because we have so many problems that are associated with eastern North Carolina and yet are not true for the total population of the nation. As I understand it, we have more gallstones than many populations, more kidney stones, sickle cell anemia, which seems to be prevalent in eastern North Carolina and not in many other areas. I think that kind of research is most important.

Betty Speir: We live in a changing culture and it's going to be important that the hospital is able to adapt to that. They are trying very hard with the Spanish speaking interpreters and I think it will be an ever more difficult problem as time goes on.

Dave Speir: Another thing I remember while I was a Board member there were a lot of problems with emergency treatment and Jack Allison came in and helped it tremendously. When I was over there the other day in an emergency situation, they put me through that emergency procedure so fast it was a miracle. I walked in at 2:45 and by 4:00 I had been checked and had so many procedures I couldn't keep track of them. It was remarkable.

Betty Speir: I'll tell you something else we haven't mentioned but it is something that has been very important and that is the Family Practice Center. There is no medical facility available other than the Family Practice Center here. It has been tremendously important to us.