In 2014 UK SCRC became a recipient of CLIR funding for
processing “Action in Appalachia: Revealing Public Health, Housing, and Community Development Records in the UK Libraries Special Collections ResearchCenter”! This processing project is now in full swing and the first collection,
Eastern Kentucky Health Services, Inc. records, has been newly housed, arranged
and described by our team of student workers. This collection provides unique
documentation for researchers of public health efforts in rural Kentucky.
The Eastern Kentucky Health Services, Inc. records (dated
1975-1983, undated; 47.5 cubic feet; 46 boxes and 7 folders) contain grant
applications from Eastern Kentucky health facilities to begin or improve
services. EKHS, Inc. began its mission to help increase access to healthcare
with a single primary health care clinic in Knott County founded by Kentucky
natives, Grady Strumbo and Benny Ray Bailey, in 1972. Strumbo’s and Bailey’s success acquiring funds
for their clinic became a model for the region and led to the EKHS, Inc. grant
program. Their initiative considered the unique needs of establishing health
care services for rural and often poor Kentuckians unlike other health care
financial assistance programs in the nation at the time. EKHS, Inc. assisted
numerous health care facilities, from small single bed family care homes to
larger medical centers throughout 1970’s and 1980’s.
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| Above: Student workers, Matthew Noe and Ashley Keith, rehousing and creating the inventory of blueprints related to grant applications in the Eastern Kentucky Health Services, Inc. records. Here is the blueprint for a proposed addition to Memorial Hospital in Manchester, Kentucky. |
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Above: Image from Manchester, KY; Memorial Hospital;
Artist's Conception; Drawing of Memorial Hospital by Watkins, Burrows, and
Associates. Part of James Edwin "Ed" Weddle Photographic Collection,
1948-1981.
Memorial Hospital applied for financial assistance from
EKHS, Inc. to help expand their facility circa 1979.
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