Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania

Abstract

The Ebandjieff Clinic sits on a small street in the center of Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania. A one-story brick building with white trim, it was built in 1949. The miners in town contributed the money to build the clinic, paying a nickel from each paycheck at the end of every day. Nanty Glo was a small coal-mining town back then, and the mining company did everything. They built the houses, owned the company store, brought in the doctors, and provided health care. Dr. George Ebandjieff, who had arrived in town from the Ukraine a year earlier, had promised the miners that they would have health care forever if they built this clinic. And he kept his promise until he died in 1973.

It is in these rural areas that a physician has the unique opportunity to become familiar with the life of the patient. The physician may live down the road from the patient, may have purchased produce from his brother ’s farm, or may. have cheered for the patient’s son in a soccer game. Relationships have the special ability to create a union that is both professional and personal. It is focused on the betterment of both the physical and social health of the population. Medicine in a rural environment not only heals the community, but is an intricate part of the community as well.

—Jennifer Miller, PSAP student, Class of 2005

If you do all your growing up in the same small place, you don’t shed identities. You accumulate them.

—Tracy Kidder, Hometown