As one would expect from a person who started practicing medicine during the Kennedy administration, James Hall, MD, family physician at Meritas Health Landmark at Tiffany Springs, has seen a few changes in his profession.
He remembers when colon screenings were performed with a 10-inch steel pipe. How heart attacks were treated with two weeks of hospitalized rest and how the concept of an emergency room was just coming into focus. Dr. Hall was here when North Kansas City Hospital had just over 100 beds and helped recruit the first cardiologists to work at the hospital.
For his countless contributions to the Northland, Ingram’s honored Dr. Hall in October by naming him one of its Top Doctors for 2024 and featuring him in its annual Special Medical Edition.
While he is touched by the award, Dr. Hall remains humble. It’s the same reason he demurs when asked to explain why he’s now treating some of his original patients’ great-grandchildren. Or why his patients sometimes leave handmade gifts.
“As an old country boy, I have been told patients like my plain talk. How I don’t make things complicated,” Dr. Hall mused. “I have a can-do attitude and a common-sense approach.”
All of this may be accurate but spending a few minutes with Dr. Hall reveals a deeper truth. A gentle wisdom won with decades of experience. A soft laugh that frequently emerges during conversation. A joyful spirit derived from finding pleasure and satisfaction in each day’s work.
“Every day is a new challenge,” Dr. Hall reasoned. “Every patient is a new challenge. Every time you walk into a room, you don’t know what you’re going to see.”
Growing up on a farm in northwest Missouri, just 90 miles from Lincoln, NE, Dr. Hall was just 16 when he was invited by Wallace Carpenter, MD, the county’s rural physician, to drive him to some house calls. The high schooler was impressed with how the doctor was accepted by and played such a key role in the community.
“I toyed with being an OB/GYN for a bit, but the truth is, I wanted to be a family doctor like Dr. Carpenter from day one,” Dr. Hall said. “I liked how he was such a big part of the community. Part of me wishes I had spent more time in a small town, like him.”
When Dr. Hall started, the Northland was a small town. North Oak Trafficway was just two lanes, as was Antioch Road. After completing medical school at the University of Nebraska in 1962 and an internship at City General Hospital, now called University Health Truman Medical Center, Dr. Hall was lured north of the river by the promise of a weekly $250 salary plus incentives.
“Once I landed here, I stayed,” Dr. Hall said. “At that time, I had a wife, two kids and a dog. I quickly developed such a patient load that it would have been difficult to pick up and leave. In the early ‘70s, I thought about going to a small town. I even interviewed for a position. But in the end, I was too ingrained in this community to leave.”
One of the elements that drew Dr. Hall into the city was the Chiefs, who arrived in town about the same time. Since pagers didn’t exist, Dr. Hall helped start an answering service for physicians north of the river. When he went to a Chiefs game, he would listen for an announcement over the stadium PA if a patient needed him.
“I always had a lot of quarters, because anywhere I went I had to call on a payphone,” Dr. Hall explained. “I remember one time, I left the ball game to help deliver a baby, then went back to the game.”
As Dr. Hall moved into different stages of life, so did his patients.
“My patient load has aged with me, so my practice has progressed essentially into geriatrics,” Dr. Hall said. “It’s gone from being procedure-oriented to prevention and early detection.”
Dr. Carpenter, the rural physician from back home in Rock Port, continues to inspire. He practiced into his 80s and was celebrated by the community when he passed a few years ago.
“Seeing how people accepted Dr. Carpenter made a big impact,” Dr. Hall said. “It is incredibly moving and humbling for me to know that I have touched not just one life, but generations of lives within a family.”
