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GREENSBORO — This neighborhood could use a shot in the arm.

Some of the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, low birthweight and poverty in Guilford County are found there.

Health officials are seeking the best remedy for those living in ZIP code 27406, north of Interstate 40/85. The neighborhood is bordered to the west by Freeman Mill Road and to the east by O. Henry Boulevard.

Preventive care and treatment is one issue, health officials said. Another is access: One doctor's office and two health clinics serve the thousands living there. A fourth facility deals only with long-term patients.

Some elderly folks such as Roberta Bracken must find a ride when they need to see a doctor.

"I have to pay somebody to carry me and drop me off," the 82-year-old said from her Terrell Street home.

And the Guilford County Department of Public Health must do something. A state contract forces the county to find a way to get more health care facilities in that neighborhood.

"A lot of those residents are aging, and there are some low-income people who find it hard to get across town," said Merle Green, the county's public health director. Health officials identified the area's need through regular countywide assessments, she said.

The cure in 27406, or steps toward it, won't be cheap.

"This will be hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said. "It's not a $10,000 deal at all."

Options include operating or helping fund a doctor's office, emergency care, urgent care or after-hours facilities.

"Something along those lines would be great for that area," Green said.

Before funding the answer, health workers want to pinpoint the best one. That could include a county-run building, a public-private venture, recruiting doctors to start practices, operating a part-time clinic or starting a mobile health care unit.

The two public/private clinics already there stay busy. And there's room for more.

"I'm highly supportive of anything that can extend access," said Dr. David Talbot, medical director for HealthServe Medical Center, a clinic on Florida Street. "We're seeing a population that's under enormous stress, with limited access to health care."

There's no timeline to finish the job, Green said, but the health department is talking with health care providers. Green met Thursday with executives at Moses Cone Hospital to approach the problem.

"In a perfect world, independent providers would open practice there," Green said.

That recalls a time when the former L. Richardson Memorial Hospital was open on South Side Boulevard, ringed with doctor's offices. That hospital, sold in 1990, later became a long-term care facility and stopped emergency care.

"What they need is an emergency department that's 24 hours," Dr. Maurice Kpeglo said about the neighborhood. Kpeglo runs a walk-in clinic with Dr. Mark Fields for non-emergency cases on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Theirs is the only doctor's office in the area.

Two clinics help the uninsured and underinsured with basic health care: HealthServe and Guilford Child Health.

Otis Hairston has lived in Greensboro for 50 years and remembers a time when plenty of doctors worked in his corner of the city.

"In the late '80s and early '90s is when the physicians that provided health care in southeast Greensboro began to retire or pass away," said Hairston, 62. "And they weren't replaced by other physicians."

He and others said most doctors moved near Moses Cone-run hospitals when L. Richardson closed.

Part of the move appears symbiotic. Just as lawyers locate close to courthouses, doctors are often near hospitals.

But urgent care facilities operate far from hospitals in other parts of the county. And Cone is several miles north of the neighborhood.

Which means many must hitch a ride.

Greensboro's SCAT bus system, which transports disabled riders door-to-door, has its second-highest number of clients in 27406, with 270.

Guilford County offers similar services for the elderly and Medicaid patients, and about 19 percent of the county's 6,200 riders come from 27406, according to numbers from Mark E. Kirstner, Guilford County's transportation director. A third of those riders are medical patients, he said.

People who need those rides are thankful, according to Green. But it can be a hassle.

A person must schedule the ride, possibly to arrive at the doctor's office too early, wait for the appointment and then wait for the ride back home.

Flexibility issues also come up, she said. What if the doctor is running behind? What if the ride is late?

And that's only for people who qualify for the special rides. Others take the regular bus.

"You have to build in time at the front and time in the back. It's easy to say, 'Ride the bus,'" Green said. "It's much more complex than that. That's not door-to-door."

But some don't fault doctors for avoiding the neighborhood.

"It's hard to have a business in the area because of the crime," said Rodney Miller, who lives at Whittington and Vance streets, referring to drugs, prostitution and theft.

At least getting an ambulance there isn't a problem.

"When I do see emergency services come in the area, they do have a decent response time," said Miller, a resident there for 14 years.

There may be hope for more health care in 27406.

Though the walk-in clinic run by Kpeglo and Fields is the only private practice around, Lane Drug moved in next door last year and bought the shopping center housing the doctor's office.

The pharmacy's owners would love to make the old strip mall a medical center, though plans are only in the talking stage.

"Dr. Kpeglo next door is happy to see us," said Jeff Biggs, co-owner of Lane Drug. "It would be fantastic to get several more physicians in here."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com