01.23.12 About 7,000 people visited the antiquated emergency room of North Caddo Medical Center in Vivian each year.

The two-bed room, divided only by a curtain, was not intended to handle such traffic when the hospital was constructed in 1965, and that's one reason hospital officials are asking voters to approve a 1-cent sales tax to fund an all-new facility.

The current facility "was not built for what we are forced to handle," hospital Administrator and CEO David Jones said.