A Most Valuable Asset

ROBERTS HOSPITAL
MOST VALUABLE ASSET

It Is Recognized and Has Friends At Home and Abroad

Recently the Herald editor was visiting at a place about fifty miles from Roberts and was introduced to a gentleman who said, "You are from Roberts, that is where Dr. Colteaux lives." At other times people have said, "I have been at Roberts. I was at the hospital there." These and other similar remarks show that the Roberts Hospital is known over a wide area. After considering the subject for some time we have wondered whether the people at home know the hospital as well as they should.
Many of our home people, not having had occasion to know the inside workings of the place do not know it so well as some others who have come many miles to receive the care which it gives. With that thought in mind we went to Dr. Colteaux to see what we might learn about the place.
The outside is that of a home. A beautiful brick structure which, were it not for the sign, a stranger would take for one of the best residences in the village. After entering the building the home idea still remains within. Everything is arranged with the idea of having the patient feel that while he or she is there it is a home and they are receiving the care and attention that the home gives.
This hospital was equipped seven years ago last March and was then considered the most up-to-date hospital within a radius of fifty miles. No expense was spared to make it as perfect as could be done. Everything went well for a time and then Dr. Colteaux's health failed for a short time which temporarily put the hospital out of use but as the doctor regained his strength it became once more the busiest place in Roberts.
When the hospital here was first equipped everything in it was the very best that money could buy but as time passes new inventions are made, new ideas are put into practice and what was up-to-date might become obsolete. With this thought in mind the doctor disposed of every piece of apparatus which was contained therein and then once more refitted the place. Within the past month he has had the whole building gone over. Every bed, every piece of furniture, every piece of apparatus, and even all of the operating instruments are new. Everything is the very latest design, newly constructed and recently placed.
The walls have all been tinted a beautiful soft gray pleasing to the eye, and restful. The beautiful curtains also have that soft gray coloring. Attractive pictures adorn the walls, and if there is anything omitted that would tend to make the place more attractive it is an oversight on the part of those looking after the place.
The white color has disappeared from everything in connection with this hospital except from the covers of the bed and the nurse's uniforms. The dominant gray has taken its place.
The electrical room is equipped with different machines for electrical treatment. Then there is the X-Ray machine, the very latest design that could be gotten,also includes some parts designed especially for this room. Also a dark room for developing X-Ray pictures.
There are bathrooms on every floor. The consulting rooms, the business office, the reception rooms and the waiting rooms take up most of the first floor. The heating apparatus and the Laundry is in the basement.
The operating room is nicely arranged with plenty of light and with frosted glass windows to avoid the glare and lighting inequality that would come from plain glass.
Cost is the one thing that comes last in the consideration of any improvement that Dr. Colteaux ever contemplates. The comfort of his patients is first, beauty in arrangement comes second and after all other elements are carefully determined that of cost has little effect.
At the time of our visit to the hospital there were five patients being cared for, and there were three nurses attending to their needs, but the number of nurses is not fixed. The doctor has a number of nurses on his list who attend to patients either in their homes or at the hospital as the doctor's needs demand.
The people of Roberts have a justifiable pride in the hospital and also in the doctor who heads this institution. Dr. Colteaux is a native of Roberts. Has lived here all his life expect the time spent in the University preparing for his profession, and a few short seasons when he has been away resting from his labors and recuperating his health. We formerly feared that he would leave us to locate in some large city where his talents would be more in demand but fear passed with us long ago. When we see the congestion of automobiles that gather in the parking space around the hospital every day during Dr. Colteaux's office hours we realize that those who need his services can come to the small town just as easily as they could go to the large city. We remember that as a boy in school Dr. Colteaux accomplished what he undertook to do. In his early business career he proved his success in that line. Even in sports he was a great success. Now in his chosen career he is recognized throughout a wide territory.
A write up of the hospital can not be complete without saying something of Dr. John W. Viers. He had been practicing in Chicago for the past twenty-five years but because he realized the benefits of living in a smaller community where he would have the advantages that come to rural lives he decided to cast his lot with us. His office is located in the Roberts hospital where he has charge during Dr. Colteaux's absence and where he attends to his general practice.

--Roberts Herald. 20 August 1930.