PLAN No. 655. A DOCTOR IN A SMALL TOWN MAKES A SPECIALTY OF SURGERY
Soon after his college course was completed he settled in a little town of about 2,500 population in the state of Iowa, in the midst of a great farming district. He liked the practice of medicine. At first he took up general practice in the town and made it a point to respond to all calls given him. He was business-like and gave people to understand that he was to receive pay for his calls and rendered bills accordingly. His genial manner won people’s confidence in his sincerity. Each year he devoted about two months to preparing himself for surgery work, which he intended later to make his specialty. Securing a dwelling house in a town he started a small hospital. This gave him an opportunity to render the proper service to the people of that community. Soon people found that, instead of going to the large city, they could get as good if not better service in their own home town from the local surgeon.
Throughout that part of the country he won a very high reputation, with the result that he had more work than he could perform in his small hospital, and later he bought an old business-college site and converted it into an up-to-date hospital. After the establishment of this hospital it occupied all of his time.
This was not done in a day, but by slow and careful building he attained enviable success in his practice. His brother, who settled in the same community, possessed greater ability as a surgeon, but because of his lack of knowledge of business methods and the following out of a good plan was not able to acquire the same degree of success.