Medicine Fills Madisonville Niche
Reprinted with permission from The Messenger
by: Lori Harrison, staff writer
Dr. Loman Trover opened his private practice nearly 60 years ago in a hard-to-reach office over a coal company store in Earlington.
From this, he built a health care empire that reaches far into western Kentucky.
“Those first years out of medical school, I became very disturbed at the scope of medicine available here in Hopkins County,” Loman said in a booklet distributed for Trover Clinic’s 50th anniversary. “Family physicians were really just operating in a triage capacity. We did not have the means to diagnose and treat even the simplest problems. I felt we had to take more responsibility for our patients’ care, and for the consequences of our decisions.”
The choice he and his brother, Dr. Faull Trover, faced was whether to change health care locally or leave to pursue their specialty interests.
“We decided to attempt to change things by starting a group practice,” Loman said.
Through the years, that group practice evolved into Trover Health System, with more than 2,000 employees.
Loman’s roots have always been planted deep in Hopkins County.
He was born Aug. 30, 1915, on a farm in the countryside between Suthards and Carbondale. His parents, Barton Crutchfield and Ruth Hibbs Trover, already had one child, daughter Mary Kathleen. Faull, their third child, was born in 1918.
The next year, the family moved to Earlington — then a bustling town of 3,500 — after the state cut a highway through their farm. All three of the Trover children graduated from Earlington High School, and then Transylvania University in Lexington.
“My interests as a young man lay in the care of other human beings,” Loman told The Messenger in 2003. “I didn’t have anyone in the family that got me interested. It was simply my goal to become a physician.”
He received one of the first Rural Health Scholarships awarded by the Kentucky Medical Association and entered University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Loman, who’s 92, could not be interviewed for this story because of health reasons, according to a Trover Health System spokeswoman.
“He contracted tuberculosis when he was a third-year student,” said Dr. Jack Hamman, a cardiologist who joined the organization in 1968. “He was almost bedridden for five years. Finally, he graduated from medical school, but in the process, had undergone extensive surgery for his tuberculosis in his right lung.”
Loman was advised not to practice medicine, Hamman said, and given a short life expectancy.
He didn’t follow that advice.
After earning his medical degree in 1947 and completing his internship, Loman returned home to Earlington the next year to start his practice.
He also got married.
“His wife, Helen, was a scrub nurse for a very busy neurological practice in Louisville, and she was originally from New York,” Hamman said. “(Loman) said, ‘Can you imagine how she must have felt getting off the train in Earlington for the first time ... which was an enormous culture shock.”
Helen worked as Loman’s nurse. His first office was over the Island Creek Company Store, which patients reached via an outside stairway.
“He said he would walk halfway up it and look around as if he were surveying the area,” Hamman said. “Actually, he was stopping to catch his breath. But as he continued to do that, he finally got to the point that he could walk to the top of the stairs. So he was very determined, even then.”
Loman’s brother, Faull, earned his medical degree and joined the practice. They moved their office to Madisonville in 1951, first locating in a white frame house on Union Street next to Baker and Hickman’s Tiny Town.
Their practice grew, and it was soon time for the brothers to make a decision about the future.
“We had two choices,” Loman told The Messenger in 2003. “One was to leave Madisonville and pursue our specialties in another community. The other was to stay and do something that would bring the resources and people to town that the community needed. We decided to stay.”
Faull began to emphasize pediatrics and obstetrics, while Loman concentrated on internal medicine and radiology. They built a larger facility at 55 E. North St. and sought other physicians to join them. On July 1, 1953, the Trover brothers, Dr. Frederick A. Scott, Dr. John E. Haynes and Dr. Merle M. Mahr announced the formation of Trover Clinic.
“(Loman) was a person who kept up with the times and, I think, in large measure was ahead of the times,” said Dr. Dan Martin, director of Trover’s education division and Hopkins County Health Department public health officer. “There were not many group practices, certainly in the state and not a lot of them around the country.”
Through the years, the clinic opened satellite locations in area communities.
On the personal side, Loman and Helen had six children: Stephanie, Kathy, Phillip, Michael, Regina and Lorrie.
Loman served as medical director for the clinic, in charge of planning and recruitment. By 1958, the clinic had 16 physicians, according to Martin’s book, “A Short History of Trover Clinic.” The clinic’s doctors specialized in medicine, surgery, pediatrics and OB/GYN, and offered radiology, pathology and anesthesiology services.
“Merle and Dr. Loman Trover were very close, probably closer than Faull and Loman were,” recalled Merle’s wife, Glema Mahr. “We went on many, many trips with them. ... Merle would do the driving because (Loman) didn’t particularly like to drive. Helen and I would sit in the back, and they would talk clinic.”
The North Street building, which saw at least five expansions, housed the clinic for nearly 10 years, Martin wrote. The clinic moved in 1961 to its current location.
These expansions were accompanied by a need for additional hospital space. Hopkins County Hospital, built by the Works Progress Administration in 1938, offered 54 beds.
Hamman recalls a story of Loman’s initial request to the Hospital Board to expand its facility.
“They were denied that request,” Hamman said. “(The board) didn’t see any reason to expand the size of the hospital. As they left the meeting, Dr. Mahr, who was the newly arrived surgeon, felt dejected and thought, ‘Maybe this is not my ultimate practice location. Maybe I should relocate somewhere else myself.’
“Dr. Trover, on the other hand, thought this was the best thing that could have happened,” Hamman said. “He said, ‘We didn’t ask for enough.’”
Eventually, the board members were convinced. The first addition to Hopkins County Hospital opened in 1959. It included 67 more beds, expanded X-ray and laboratory spaces and surgical suites. A second addition opened in 1962 and a third in 1969.
During the 1960s, Loman became the community’s economic development contact.
“He had his finger in everything,” Martin said. “One of the things that should not be overlooked, I think, was his impact on his community economically. Not just with the personnel that he brought here, but he was, I think, almost directly responsible for the first major industry, which was Goodyear, to come here.
“There was some thought that because coal mining paid, it might be hard for industry to come here because the salaries for miners were fairly high,” Martin said. “Any industry coming in would have to compete with the higher salaries. But he convinced Goodyear. ... Once you get one industry here, others are attracted.”
In those years, Loman also saw a need for local educational opportunities to help the clinic and hospital fill their staffing needs.
At a national conference, he met Dr. Alton Ochsner, who founded the Ochsner Clinic in Jefferson, La.
“Dr. Ochsner had indicated to (Loman) that if he wanted to have a creative and ongoing clinic, that he might well give some thought to having education as part of that clinic,” Martin said.
Trover Foundation, with the mission of health education and research, was started in 1957.
“I think Dr. Trover had visions of what health care should be,” Martin said. “He would always tell you that the people in the rural parts of the state were somewhat disenfranchised by virtue of their physicians that they had, with not much good medical care.
“He had, I think, a vision to bring medical care at as high a degree of efficiency and sophistication as he could to the rural parts of the state, in particular to this area, here,” Martin continued. “At the time, there were not a lot of specialists, so he had been successful in getting subspecialists to settle here with him at Trover Clinic and, of course, working at Hopkins County Hospital. He was a visionary, is a visionary.”
Loman started working with state officials, and legislation establishing Madisonville Community College and the Health Occupations School was signed by Gov. Louie Nunn on the same day in 1970.
This resulted in people being trained locally to become nurses, radiology technicians, laboratory workers and more.
In 1971, a family practice residency program — the first in the state — was established here. Hopkins County Hospital became home to the first neonatal intensive care unit outside of Lexington or Louisville two years later.
The community’s medical needs were outgrowing Hopkins County Hospital.
So, Trover Foundation decided to build Regional Medical Center, a 410-bed hospital that opened in late 1979. Along with the new building came added services, including open heart surgery and full-body CT scanning.
“We weren’t trying for firsts,” Loman told The Messenger in 2003. “We were trying to be the best at providing health care. All those things just happened out of that philosophy.”
Expansions in training and facilities continued. The Trover Tower addition was built onto the clinic in 1981. Merle M. Mahr Cancer Center opened in 1984, the same year Trover Foundation began offering sports medicine and rehabilitation. U of L medical students may now complete their third and fourth years of training in Madisonville. In 1996, RMC and Trover Clinic joined together as part of Trover Foundation.
Loman retired as foundation board chairman in 2000.
Two years later, the organization opened the Center for Women’s Health and the Jack L. Hamman Heart and Vascular Center. The foundation held “An Evening of Appreciation” to honor Loman in 2003 on the 50th anniversary of the founding of Trover Clinic.
On Nov. 1, 2004, Helen Trover died.
Last year, Trover Foundation’s name changed to Trover Health System.
The change was intended to better reflect the organization’s mission while keeping the Trover name.
Loman is past president of the American Group Practice Association, past chairman of the Health Sciences Advisory Committee, charter member of the American Academy of Medical Directors, past president of the Madisonville-Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce and past chairman of First Federal Savings Bank of Kentucky.
The economic impact of the health care industry in Hopkins County is just part of Loman’s lasting legacy, Martin said.
“I think the region has benefited from having specialty care,” Martin said. “People do not have to travel a distance now except to get the most extreme specialty care. He’s provided a model for surrounding communities to look at and emulate what has gone on here.”
Hamman called Loman “one of the most focused individuals I have ever seen. ... Once he decided on a course of action and a goal, there was almost nothing that could dissuade him from pursuing it.”
“It was his philosophy that if you took appropriate and compassionate care of the patient, the business rewards of medicine would follow,” Hamman said. “His emphasis was always on care first.”
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