This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Celebrating HANCOCK COUNTY	^11
Growth brings influx of health care providers
SPECIAL TO THE SUN HERALD
On July 7, 1958, Hancock County hospital administrator Edgar Little spoke to the women’s auxiliary to enlist their support. His pitch was urgent. An air-conditioner was desperately needed for the operating room in the frame structure on Carroll Avenue formerly known as Kings Daughters Hospital.
For a mere $250, the ladies could ensure greater comfort for patients and staff. The donated fans simply weren’t doing the job. A committee was appointed, with Mrs. Leo W. Seal Sr. as chairman, to secure the needed equipment. So goes the history of medicine in Hancock County: a need is identified, support and resources are gathered and success follows.
Retired Bay St. Louis radiologist A.K. “Andy" Martinolich, M.D., remembers walking dcxir to door in the late 1950s to gather support for a $1.7 million bond issue to construct the county-owned Hancock General Hospital on Dunbar Avenue. He said that three supervisors - the late R.G. “Manny” Husband, Samantha Kellar and C.A. Russ - led the charge to build a modem 20-bed facility under the government’s Hill-Rurton Act.
“We had to convince some businessmen and residents that taxes wouldn’t
increase drastically,” said Martinolich, who was one of five physicians on active staff in 1960. The five general practitioners would man the emergency room, deliver babies and treat a wide range of ages and illnesses.
In the next decade, the hospital added a new wing and 40 inpatient beds for a total of 60; 20 years later, plans were underway for construction of a replacement facility on the current Drinkwater Boulevard campus.
Today’s 104-bed acute care facility, Hancock Medical Center, has a combined active and consulting medical staff of more than 100 physicians representing nearly all specialities.
The medical center has grown steadily in all areas of patient services since its construction in 1987. Three major building projects have addressed those needs: expansion of the emergency, respiratory, surgery, physical therapy and radiology departments in 1987 (7,500 square feet); construction of a patient financial services building in 1997 (8,000 square feet); and a major expansion in 1998 (49,000 square feet) that doubled existing floor space. Included in the three-story pavilion is a new obstetric/women’s unit, infant nursery, family waiting rooms, post-surgical and dedicated pediatric units. Four intensive care
beds were added for a total of 10.
Currently, a comprehensive cardiopulmonary disease management program has been initiated and constmc-tion is underway for installation of a fixed-site MRI unit.
The Hancock Family Care Center in north Hancock County and the Hancock Multispecialty Clinic in
Diamondhead have made medical care more accessible to residents of those areas.
Community outreach programs include hospital-sponsored clinics at Ray High and Hancock High schools, free monthly childhood immunizations and free health screenings and education seminars throughout the year.
The Hancock Medical Center has gnnun steadily in all areas of patient services since its construction in 1987.