Once considered pointless, E. Carolina University's medical center makes big economic impact

Although North Carolina lawmakers initially opposed giving Greenville-based East Carolina University the opportunity to start a medical school, no one regrets the decision now. Since its first class in 1977, "the medical school has transformed Pitt County Memorial Hospital and the region," reports Jerry Allegood of The News & Observer in Raleigh. "Not only did the school boost health care in Greenville — now there are about 500 doctors and 1,200 nurses on the hospital staff alone — but it also fostered a far-reaching regional health care system serving 1.2 million people in 29 eastern North Carolina counties."

Without the university and the medical school in that part of the state, "we would look like a developing nation," former U.S. Sen. Robert Morgan, an ECU graduate and longtime political supporter, told Allegood. The university is about two hours east of Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina medical center.

The initial goal was to increase the number of doctors for the state's rural areas, but the resulting growth of the hospital has been an economic boost thanks to the med center's 6,300 jobs. "With tobacco's decline and the near-extinction of small-town hospitals, this latest development boom underscores the medical complex's role as an economic engine and provider of rural doctors," Allegood writes. (Read more)