DOCTORS PARK EXHIBITS FORESIGHT OF OUR DOCTORS

The diversity of Cape Girardeau's economy has been a real asset in the community's growth. One of the fastest growing segments has been medical service. Few communities of 35,000 can boast of a medical community like the one that has flourished in Cape Girardeau.

We can be proud of Cape Girardeau's medical facilities, especially Doctors' Park. This unique medical neighborhood celebrates its 20th year of operation this month.

Doctors' Park has become a model for communities across the nation. Its setting is unique nationally drawing visiting doctors from across the nation who are interested in setting up similar ventures. Doctors from almost every speciality work together in a single complex, but own or rent their facilities. Doctors' Park provides top-notch services in a campus-like setting.

This extraordinary complex became a reality due to the foresight of our medical community. Twenty years ago, about 20 doctors gave the concept a chance. A wheat field on the edge of town was transformed into a full-fledged medical complex. Today, the park has about 120 physicians, dentists and other professionals, and employs 500 workers in 27 buildings and 61 offices.

There's no doubt the concept has worked, and worked well. The facility draws patients from a five-state population base of 350,000. During any given day, 2,500 to 2,800 people will receive treatment in Doctors' Park.

Unique to the park is also its outpatient surgery center. This marks another area in which local doctors demonstrated foresight. When Doctors' Park Surgery was established in 1976, it was one of only 42 such centers in the country. By 1989, more than 1,200 centers were operating nationwide. Cape's doctors were on the leading edge of this trend.

Doctors' Park has become a drawing card for this community, bringing in thousands of visitors each day who eat at restaurants and shop at stores here. A recent retail survey on customer travel revealed the number one reason for out-of-town people visiting Cape was that they had been to the doctor, or had brought someone to the doctor. Cape Girardeau has reaped untold benefits from Doctors' Park both as an economic blessing and as a medical facility.

Today, the Southeast Missourian features a special section on Doctors' Park highlighting its beginnings 20 years ago and the vast progress that has been made in two short decades.

Doctors' Park has come a long way in these 20 years, but there's every indication that the success will continue. The complex, which is self-supporting, is expanding with new doctors and services each year. This multi-specialty medical complex has been a tremendous asset for the entire region and has become a real showcase for our medical community and the city of Cape Girardeau.