Branch of Logan-Hocking County District Library | Laurelville

Originally, Avery Thielman and I knocked on the door of The Laurelville Senior Center hoping to get insights into caregivers in rural communities. Getting no response, we headed next door to the EMS station, ringing the doorbell, and also did not obtain a response. This was on a Tuesday at 9:30am. We ended up progressing to the next available public business: the Laurelville Library. We were able to interview the main librarian behind the counter on her healthcare experiences as a resident and employee of Laurelville.

Librarian: We've actually had patrons up here that had a medical emergency, and [the EMS responders] just come straight up for us. We're so close… It's faster for us to just run down there than to try to call because they're calling through the system. But for us, if there's a medical emergency here, somebody's passed out on our floor, the quickest route is we just run down there, grab somebody, and they come straight up.

Q: How far is the nearest hospital for you?

Librarian: Closest hospitals to Laurelville’s about 30 minutes, 30 to 40 minutes from Circleville, Chillicothe, and Lancaster. So we have three bigger cities that all have hospitals within 30 minutes. So actually, I forgot Logan, there's four, Circleville, Chillicothe, Lancaster, Logan, are all within about a 30 minute drive.

Q: Do you have a preference on which one you go to? 

Librarian: Um... For me, I'm more familiar with, like... I think it depends on how familiar you are. Some people go to Chillicothe just because they're more familiar or closer. 

Librarian: It's probably insurance based. When I had to take my dad to the hospital, it was which hospital does his insurance cover? So that kind of determined for us which one we took him to.

Librarian: Um, my dad had health issues before he passed, so they were pretty quick about taking care of his needs and then assessing and sending him. There were several times that it was a very serious situation. They would send him to Columbus, to a big hospital. The smaller hospitals are good about assessing the situation, saying, okay, we don't have what we need here.

Librarian: I know my pastor had serious head trauma and they life-lighted him from Circleville up to a hospital in Columbus. Yes, they've got the helipad there, if it's life-threatening.

Q: Do you remember what procedure your dad needed?

Librarian: Dad had so many health issues. Um, I know at the time, they were gonna put him on a ventilator, and it was touch and go, and they sent him up to specialists. My dad had so many issues, so I can't remember which one it was. Um, you know, he was diabetic, um, he had macular degeneration, so he didn't have eyesight left. He had kidney issues… so just various things going on. And I think when you're that medically compromised and it was multiple things playing into it, they wanted to send him up to specialist.

Librarian: He was a fighter. He fought right to the end, and I'll tell you the amazing story about that. The one time that they did send him up and they said, we're going to put on a ventilator. I want you guys to stay here. We don't think he'll make it 24 hours. They start working on him up there. And we were there for about an hour and my dad opened his eyes and he goes, I'm so thirsty. Can you give me a diet, Dr. Pepper? 

Q: Did your dad’s insurance cover everything?

Librarian: He had pretty decent insurance, but not everything was covered. And I do remember one cost that, you know, we were shocked with was ambulatory transport. That was a chunk of money.

The librarian ended up giving us advice to go back to the EMS station, and we managed to catch the truck right as it pulled back into the station.

This revealed big issues regarding distance, overlapping health illnesses, and financial factors.