Lebanon, NH

Here is my quick Internet impression of the "city" of Lebanon. It is a town of approximately 12,500 set in the heart of some of the most beautiful country in the world, namely the rural Grafton County (pop 75,000) in the state of New Hampshire (pop 1.2 million, size 24,000Km², about the same size as Taranaki, King Country & Wanganui, but with a few more people!). It is 85km from Manchester (NH) and 200km from Boston. You can check out info on the "city" of Lebanon, NH here.

The largest employer in the town is the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center which employs 4,366, out of a labour force of 7,464 (with another 315 employed at the Alice Peck Day Hospital). The next largest employer, MPB Corporation (Ball Bearings) employs 612, and other business includes engineering and software. There are Native American issues, but overall unemployment in Lebanon runs at only 1.1%!

There is a continuous coverage of snow for 92 days per season, so it is not surprising to find some excellent skating and skiing facilities such as the Dartmouth Skiway, ½ hour to the north. They boast a spacious quad chair lift servicing 30 trails so "there are never any lift lines!" After skiing, skating, and swing dancing I guess it is on to shopping! The "City" is the retail shopping center for the region having five shopping plazas!!

The Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), is a charitable, non-profit organization located in Lebanon, New Hampshire. DHMC includes Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, Dartmouth Medical School, the state's only medical school and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic, a multi-specialty academic group practice. Its mission is "to provide high-quality health care and comfort to the ill, to prevent illness among the well, and to advance health care through education, research, and the improvement of clinical practice". It has been ranked in the top 50 US hospitals [U.S. News & World "America's Best Hospitals" (2001 edition)] in four specialty areas: cardiology, gynecology, orthopedics and digestive disorders.

This is a major tertiary hospital, research centre and Medical School (research and clinical facilities for Dartmouth Medical School - the country's fourth oldest), which networks with other hospitals to meet the healthcare needs of each member's community. It has a Medicare population of 53,000 but also provides tertiary services for 29 surrounding community hospitals (average distance of 100km), usually via helicopter.

The project cost $228 million to build in 1988 (I think we could set up with only about $300 million NZ) and is described here. It houses the Norris Cotton Cancer Center (providing advanced cancer diagnosis, treatment and research), the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD) including Neonatal and Paediatric intensive care, a Perinatal Trauma unit, a Neurosurgery unit, research facilities for psychiatry, PTSD, Molecular and Cellular Biology (the Borwell Research Building), the Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences (CCEHS), the Center for Shared Decision Making, the West Central Behavioral Health and the NH Poison Information Center.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock is a charitable organization and has a financial assistance policy. Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic provided $27 million in community benefits in fiscal year 2000.

The Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advanced Response Team (DHART) is based in Lebanon, at New Hampshire's only ACOS verified Level 1 Trauma Center. The DHART crews provide both ground and air medical transportation services to the medical communities of Northern New England. In addition, The DHART flight crews respond to public safety agency requests for medical evacuation of trauma patients from scenes of injury and will transport to the closest Trauma Center in the region's five states. The Team consists of Communications Specialists, Flight Nurses, Flight Paramedics, Respiratory Care Practitioners, Mobile Intensive Care Unit Transport Nurses, EMTs, Pilots, and Airframe and Power plant Mechanics. I could see a South Taranaki Advanced Response Team (START) and Helicopter Training School developing from an expanded Beck enterprise in Eltham - to give Alan a chance to share his skills and expand the Eltham economy.

Oh, and did I mention skiing? Right beside Lebanon is the Whaleback Resort with night skiing! Now a Gondola could operate at night to a restaurant on Fanthams Peak and a flood-lit field below, giving all us hard working people a chance to ski at night....