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Community Profile — pennsylvania refuge Continued...

As the population gets older, physicians are in demand, says Kostin. Bisordi says it is the same at Geisinger, “This year we hired 112 doctors and are looking for 43 more.”

Harrisburg, the state capital on the Susquehanna River, is notable thanks in large part to an astounding 25-year renaissance that’s transformed it from America’s second most “distressed” city of the late 1970s into a thriving business and entertainment hub.

Kostin, a Philadelphia native who joined the PinnacleHealth staff after graduating from the Creighton University School of Medicine, has weathered the ups and downs of Harrisburg since 1969. He was involved in the arduous cleanup after the never-to-be-forgotten day in 1972 when Hurricane Agnes overwhelmed the city with five feet of water. Located across the street from the river, the hospital was one of the first casualties. A year later the hospital marked its 100th anniversary amid the cleanup that would take seven to eight years to complete.

Kostin was also on hand in March, 1979, for the reactor meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The plant is just 14 miles from the capital. Although 140,000 people fled the area and a few were hospitalized, there’s still disagreement over the legacy of the “disaster.” A 1996 study linked erythema, hair loss, vomiting, some increase in cancer incidence, and pet deaths to the incident. One local man, labeled “Mr. TMI Alert” by skeptics, insists that “TMI is an accident without an ending.” But a recent letter writer to Fortune magazine asserted that “no one died, no one even got hurt, and there was (only) a small amount of radiation.”

That debate over the long-term effects aside, the two events exacerbated Harrisburg’s already distressed economic condition. The city had prospered first because of river transportation, then as a hub for several railroads, which transported goods from its anthracite blast furnaces, a textile mill, iron mills, and machinery factories. But manufacturing declined, affluent residents and retail businesses moved to the suburbs, school quality declined, crime increased, and downtown all but died.

Harrisburg has rebounded by assuming more and more importance as a center of state and federal government, and through the efforts of Mayor Stephen R. Reed, who took office in 1982. Like a modern-day Lancelot, with a cadre of willing “knights,” Reed took on the demons of urban blight—en masse.

Soon after Reed took office, there were mayor’s initiative, enhancement, improvement, redevelopment, economic development, and regional partnering groups for everything from street cleanups, park and waterfront revitalization to flood control, major construction projects, and entertainment venues. Reed was a major force behind neighborhood block parties, some 200 annual entertainment events and festivals, and the building of two major new hotels, with more to come.

Public evidences of all this progress are a 20-mile hiking/biking Greenbelt looping around the city through beautiful parks and past the Capitol Complex; a resuscitated Riverfront Park running five miles along the Susquehanna; a minor league baseball team (bought by the city) playing at a ballpark on City Island; Restaurant Row along Second Street downtown; new and renovated performance halls, and the huge new National Civil War museum on a hilltop east of the capitol.

The new Harrisburg University of Science and Technology provides engineering and technology education to help feed the city’s—and the nation’s—insatiable hunger for technical experts. Graduates might even find work at some local firms. Dozens of corporate headquarters are now in town, and unemployment rates are under three percent.

After 25 years in office, Reed is still full of ideas and plans. In April, his 16-page report to the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce listed no fewer than 19 recent new accomplishments and 31 works in progress.

Kent Wissinger, the marketing director for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, notes what this means to just one important area. “Downtown is almost like the Mardi Gras,” he marvels. The symphony itself presents Masterworks and Pops concerts in the Forum, a spectacular theater complete with a glittering planetarium-like ceiling. It’s in one of several attractive buildings on the 65-acre complex dominated by the 272-foot golden-domed capitol, a replica of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Besides the much-used Greenbelt, the great outdoors throughout the area offers excellent opportunities for hunting, fishing, and skiing. The river attracts canoeists and kayakers. Sports lovers flock to Penn State football games at State College, 90 miles away.

Harrisburg International Airport serves the region’s travel needs, offering nonstop flights to 14 destinations. And it is one of America’s safest airports thanks to the fact that its previous occupant was Olmstead Air Force Base, which built the second longest runway in the U.S. to accommodate its huge C-130 cargo planes. Jorge Scheirer, MD, an internist in West Reading, says, “I’ve flown out of there a few times.” Even more astounding these days: “It’s actually a nice experience.”

Reading

Scheirer, an 11-year resident of the area, has a large office in Wyomissing, population 7,332, but, as a “hospital-based” doctor, he spends four days a week at Reading Hospital and Medical Center in West Reading. It’s a 22-acre building complex on a 36-acre campus with satellite facilities at 19 other area locations.

“People we have recruited have always been surprised at what is here,” Scheirer says. “Most people know about Reading as one of the railroad names on a Monopoly board or because of the outlet malls.” Neither impression is baseless. The city has been a hub of the real-life Reading Railroad, and it’s also known as the original outlet capital of the world. One super-giant location, the VF Outlet Village, is home to more than 700 stores.

“This is a nice restaurant town,” says Scheirer, and, “it has one of the longest-running symphonies.” He also enjoys pop concerts at the Sovereign Center, not to be confused with the Sovereign Performing Arts Center, home of the symphony and venue for sports and other events.

Scheirer lives in suburban Exeter Township, “a place,” he says, “where we don’t lock cars and where we let the kids play in the yard.” As a matter of fact, he often uses this more pleasant lifestyle as a recruiting tool. “One reason for not coming here is that it’s not perceived as a singles area, although it’s less that way now. But it does appeal to doctors with families.”

One important benefit to life in these areas, particularly Reading, is the low cost of living. “Reading and Berks County are very interesting. We are on a little island protected from home price inflation,” says Scheirer. Not far away, a mere 30 to 40 miles, towns are close enough to Philadelphia, DC, and Baltimore so that the cost of housing is 30 to 40 percent higher. He adds, “A recent doctor recruit from Boston was just amazed!”

York

In York, James Lease, DO has found a small comfort zone in a sizeable city. He’s one of two pathologists at Memorial Hospital. “It’s like a marriage,” he jokes. He says he and the other pathologist “seem to have the same thoughts at the same time.”

The feeling of neighborliness is actually hospital-wide, Lease adds. “Almost everyone knows everyone, and patients seem to enjoy the collegiality, too.”

With 100 beds, Memorial is a community hospital with a collegial mix of MDs and DOs. Says Lease, “We’re the David, as opposed to the large York Hospital as Goliath. We offer a choice, an option.”

York Hospital is a 460-bed facility operated by Wellspan, which also owns Gettysburg Hospital in nearby Gettysburg.

Lease, a native Yorker, has now been at Memorial Hospital for almost 18 years. “It was not necessarily my intent to come back (after training), but jobs in pathology at the time were a little tight. There was an opportunity here, so I said, ‘Sure, why not?’” It’s been a good match, he says, with salary and benefits “more than fair.”

The proximity to big cities and Maryland and Delaware shores is also appealing. Lease and his family get to New York several times a year, and Philadelphia more regularly.

Danville cardiologist Skelding admits she enjoys urban amenities, but doesn’t miss the urban hassles. “It would be lovely to live in Chicago with no traffic,” she says, “but I think there’s very little that’s missing here. And you can easily go to New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore for a weekend.” g

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Eileen Lockwood is a free-lance writer based in St. Joseph, Missouri.