Personal Stories

The Communities We Serve

While we share financial information and statistics in this report, the SCHA 2007 Hospital Community Benefits Report is not simply about numbers, it’s about the people who benefit from having a committed hospital available to them. Mothers and fathers. Babies and teens. Grandparents. Neighbors, friends, co-workers.

It’s with a deep sense of satisfaction that we relay to you how hospitals (perhaps even your hospital) have helped those in need, often at little or no cost to those being served. Below are a few of their stories:

 

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Small Hospital, Big Heart

Clarendon Memorial Hospital may be a small, rural hospital, but that didn't’t stop it from thinking and acting big when a local doctor came forward with a special request.

Dr. Edward Keith, team physician for the Manning High School Monarchs, told Clarendon CEO Ed Frye about the need for life-saving defibrillators at sporting events. Sharing Dr. Keith’s concern, Frye and the hospital took action, purchasing Powerheart Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) for every public and private high school in the county. In the event a student athlete experiences cardiac arrest, the state-of-the-art machine automatically delivers a shock to an arrested athlete after defibrillator pads placed on the athlete determine the athlete’s condition. School athletic directors attended training sessions before receiving the AEDs, and the hospital’s emergency medical technicians volunteered to conduct follow-up classes at each school.

“It was an easy decision to invest in this potentially life-saving equipment,” said Frye.“I just thought, ‘what if that was my child or grandchild?’”

 

Everybody Needs a Buddy

Every child is special, but an innovative camp hosted by the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the Down Syndrome Association of the Lowcountry drove that message home in June 2007.

The intent of “Buddy Camp”was to bring together children with and without Down Syndrome, their parents, and a range of caregivers to foster awareness, acceptance, and inclusion of kids with Down Syndrome. In all, twenty campers, ranging in age from two to six, half with Down Syndrome and half without, took part in Buddy Camp. MUSC specialists in speech, occupational and physical therapy, as well as music therapists and speech language pathologists, also worked with the children throughout the week.

“The camp was filled with fun, friendship, and an opportunity to learn more about individuals who may have differences. There were magical moments throughout the week for campers and counselors,” said Diane Andrews, MUSC speech language pathology manager and Buddy Camp coordinator. Buddy Camp was well received by parents, children and counselors. Said one parent,“Thank you for dreaming up a place for our children to play and learn from other children. Buddy Camp will continue to benefit our children for a long time to come.”

 

At the Heart of the Matter

Most of the people seen at the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System’s Heart Center already have broken hearts. It is the hospital’s mission to prevent further heart aches by offering a range of services to the community, one of those being the Cardiac Heart Failure clinic.

Free to the community, the clinic is staffed by two full-time registered nurses who manage patients’ care. The first order of business is to review the patients’ prescribed medications to ensure that the appropriate regimen is administered. In addition, patients who qualify receive financial assistance to purchase medicine.

The nurses also provide education on healthy food choices and lifestyles, signs and symptoms of worsening heart failure, and when to seek medical attention.

Each year, approximately 1,300 people heal their broken hearts at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System’s Cardiac Heart Failure clinic.

 

Disease Detection in the Nick of Time

For many people, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center’s annual health fair in Myrtle Beach is the only time they receive preventive health screenings. For one attendee in particular, routine blood work proved to be a life-saving event.

A man became dizzy after having his blood drawn and was immediately examined by one of the volunteer physicians. Suspecting that the man was suffering from an aneurysm, the physician sent him to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center for further testing, which ultimately confirmed the prognosis. Had the man not been examined that day, the blockage could have gone untreated, and he could have suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. Fortunately, he was diagnosed just in the nick of time.The man is now under a physician’s care to monitor the aneurysm and attributes his health and well being to attending Grand Strand Regional Medical Center’s health fair that day.

 

Promoting Bicycle Safety

Keeping children safe from harm can feel like a full-time job. From teaching them about strangers to buckling up in cars to keeping them vaccinated, sometimes the last thing a parent thinks about is bicycle safety.

Yet something as simple as wearing a helmet could prevent more than seventy-five percent of bicycle-related fatalities among children age fourteen and under; a fact that makes educating kids about helmet safety a no-brainer for the staff at AnMed Health, who see too many children come through the emergency room with head injuries.

For the past three years, AnMed’s Safe Kids Program and Partners for a Healthier Honea Path have hosted a Bicycle Rodeo for at-risk children in the Honea Path Elementary School after-school program. Children attending the rodeo learn about bicycle safety from AnMed employee volunteers and receive free helmets as part of the event.

Several weeks following the rodeo, a teacher commented on seeing two children riding bicycles down the street wearing helmets. Clearly, AnMed’s bicycle rodeo makes roping in helmet safety fun for kids!

 

The Shrinking Community

Greenville Memorial Hospital knows that obesity is a growing epidemic in their community, and in response, began the Greater Greenville Shrinkdown.

The free program is an eight-week healthy living awareness initiative that targets youth and adult obesity and related diseases. Participants are provided with a Healthy Living Guide loaded with information about nutrition, exercise and health education.

During the program, participants take part in weekly weigh-ins and counseling, as well as attend Health Talks, a series of lectures given by medical experts that focus on topics related to health and wellness.

Last year, 5,500 pounds of fat was lost in the Greenville community thanks to Greenville Memorial Hospital. Now that’s a major shrink down!

 

Military Motif Attacks Safety

As part of the Greer Family Festival, the staff at Allen Bennett Memorial Hospital erected a combat zone in the fight to safeguard children in the community.

The hospital staff worked with local businesses to secure props and supplies for the military-themed safety exhibit.

Children attending the festival entered the MASH area where they received dog tags and then explored the camp, learning valuable lessons in safety. Allen Bennett Memorial Hospital employees manned the various safety stations, playing games with children and giving away free safety gear.

 

 

Screening Saves Lives

The first Tuesday of every month, a Hillcrest Memorial Hospital Community Relations nurse conducts free blood pressure screenings at the local Belk store’s Senior Day event.

Approximately fifty seniors are screened at each event and many are referred to a physician to follow-up if they have hypertensive blood pressure readings.

Recently a participant had an extremely high blood pressure reading and was fearful she would have a stroke. With counseling and a new medication regimen, her blood pressure is now under control. Ask her how she feels about the service work being done by Hillcrest Memorial Hospital and she replies,“I credit them with saving my life.”

 

Creating Access to Care for the Uninsured

Many service industry jobs do not provide health insurance benefits for their employees, leaving individuals and families with few options for care. McLeod Regional Medical Center has opened the door to the uninsured and underinsured in its community by conducting a series of industry health fairs as part of its Community Health Education program.

Those who attend the free events receive free health screenings, referrals to primary and specialty physicians, educational materials, healthy lifestyle suggestions, and information on additional McLeod Regional Medical Center resources, such as its Health and Fitness Center and Employee Assistance Program. Supporting the uninsured workforce means supporting a healthy community, and McLeod Regional Medical Center is up for the challenge.

 

 

Clean Hands, Clean Bill of Health

The single most important thing to do to keep from getting sick and spreading illness is to wash your hands.

During a tour of the City of Travelers Rest Police Department, an administrator for North Greenville Long Term Acute Care Hospital noticed that there wasn't enough access to soap and water in the building.

In response, the hospital donated dispensers and waterless hand sanitizers to the police department and provided educational literature about the link between illness and clean hands.

 

 

To See is To Learn

One in four children in South Carolina has impaired vision, negatively impacting their performance in school and in sports.

Palmetto Health’s Vision Health Initiative provides free comprehensive eye exams and glasses for low-income kindergarten through twelfth-grade students with support from community partner Wal-Mart.

 

 

 

 

 

A Day for Health

It couldn't have been a more perfect Saturday. The weather was beautiful, the music was upbeat, and the hot dogs were grilling as more than five hundred people turned out for East Cooper Regional Medical Center's Community Day.

The event offered free health screenings in a relaxed, friendly environment.

Community Day gave members of the community a chance to mingle with physicians, health care professionals, and emergency response personnel in a lively atmosphere, while participating in prostate, blood sugar, osteoporosis, blood pressure, and cholesterol screenings.

East Cooper Regional Medical Center distributed free colon cancer kits, hosted speakers who addressed a montage of health-related issues, and worked with the fire and police departments to educate kids in valuable safety lessons.

 

Endowment Funds Nursing Education

The national nursing shortage continues to rage unabated, particularly in small and rural communities like Dillon. Health care professionals are often drawn to larger cities because of quality of life issues, leaving small-town hospitals challenged to remain staffed at optimum levels.

Recently, McLeod Medical Center-Dillon was awarded a grant from The Duke Endowment to develop a nursing education expansion plan for the community.The hospital is using the funds to create an Associate Degree Nursing program at Northeastern Technical College.

By developing a local nursing program, McLeod Medical Center-Dillon is addressing the crucial need for more nursing personnel in order to better serve the community’s health care needs and eliminate the need to travel for much needed services.

 

Hospital Attracts Good Samaritans

Palmetto Health Baptist-Easley and its dedicated health care professionals have served more than 20,000 patients since the Samaritan Health Clinic in Easley opened its doors sixteen years ago.

A variety of primary care and OB/GYN doctors, as well as surgeons and neurologists, volunteer on a regular basis to provide free medical care to low-income, uninsured residents in Pickens County.

Located conveniently nearby, Palmetto Health Baptist-Easley expands the reach of the clinic by donating laboratory and X-ray services.

Community-wide support, grants and funding from Palmetto Health are responsible for the clinic’s growth from a single-room operation open one day a week to a 7,000-square-foot facility open three days a week -- more space, more time, and more people to make a difference in the community.

 

When You Lose Something You Can't Replace

Losing a family member is a traumatic event for anyone, but it can be an especially confusing time for children.They are looking for answers to questions that adults sometimes can’t answer.They also are searching for comfort at every turn.

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System understands this loss and addresses the needs of children in the community at a bereavement day camp. Christopher’s Camp is free for children ages five to sixteen, who are grieving following the death of a family member or a friend.

The children are given opportunities to share their feelings and experiences of loss in small groups of other campers close to their age. Activities are designed to encourage each camper to express his/her thoughts about death and grief.

“The camp gives children and teenagers a chance to process grief and just be around other kids in the same situation as they are,” said Edie Riddlespurger, child bereavement counselor and licensed social worker at Spartanburg Regional Hospice. The caring and compassionate adults at Christopher’s Camp help children look forward to a happier, hopeful future.

 

Groundhog Shadow Day Reveals Health Care Jobs

The Medical University of South Carolina’s (MUSC) Groundhog Shadow Day held in February gives Charleston area teens an up close and personal look at careers available in health care.

MUSC arranges for students to shadow health care professionals in their environment so students can experience hands on what the job entails. Students get a much more accurate representation of specified fields in health care, more so than what could be gathered from reading a book.

For some students, it reinforces their desire to enter into a field or encourages them to reevaluate their plans. And for others, it opens their eyes to a whole new world of career options.

 

The Right Place at the Right Time

Nurse Gale Bullock was driving to her shift at Roper Hospital when she saw a car hit a child walking to a bus stop.

She was shocked when the car did not stop. Gale quickly got the car’s license plate number, called 9-1-1, and proceeded to put her years of experience as an emergency room nurse into action.

The child had sustained an open leg fracture and was in terrible pain. Gale stayed to comfort the child and even assisted the emergency medical technicians and police at the scene.

Gale was in the right place at the right time and is the right person to represent Roper Hospital’s dedication to serving the community.

 

Wedding Bells

A patient was hospitalized in the critical care unit at Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital. Her son, who was distraught because of his mother’s condition, knew that she would miss sharing in the happiest day of his life — his wedding day.

The caring staff at Bon Secours could not let this happen and arranged a private ceremony in the hospital chapel so that his mother could attend her son’s wedding.

The hospital staff coordinated everything from helping the patient into her dress to decorating the chapel to putting on a reception in the hospital’s family room. The patient passed away not long after the ceremony, but because of Bon Secours’ compassion for a patient, a mother was able to celebrate the most joyous moment in her son’s life, a memory that her son will cherish forever.

 

Caring About the Community

High rates of uninsured in Richland County, combined with healthcare disparities among the minority population, prompted the creation of Palmetto Health’s Richland Care, a coordinated healthcare delivery system that serves uninsured county residents below two hundred percent of the federal poverty level.

The goals of the system are to increase access to care and improve the overall health of its participants. Participants choose one of eleven medical homes for primary care and preventive services, and have access to a network of eighteen contracted specialty groups in eleven specialty areas.

Participants also receive pharmacy services, mental health, and support services for chronic illnesses. Palmetto Health shows how hospitals and communities are working together to address healthcare challenges and improve community health.

In 2006, Palmetto Health’s Richland Care played an instrumental role in Richland County being named an All-America City.

 

Southern Hospitality

When tourists come through Newberry, rest assured that the staff at Newberry County Memorial Hospital makes everyone feel welcome.

A young family heading home from a vacation on Hilton Head Island was driving through Newberry on their way to Cincinnati, Ohio, when they were rear-ended by a car speeding along Interstate 26 at one hundred miles per hour.

Emergency medical technicians arrived on the scene and took the mother and her nine-month old son to the hospital where they were examined for injuries. Both parents and child walked away from the accident unscathed, but their car was totaled.

Stranded and hundreds of miles from home, the family had no idea what to do or where to go. That’s when two Newberry County Memorial Hospital nurses stepped in to save the day. Amy Davis, RN, made arrangements for a hotel room, while Katie Hare, RN, drove the family to the store for baby formula and other necessities and then dropped them off at the hotel. Once safely home, the grateful mother sent an e-mail to Newberry County Memorial Hospital that read, “I have never met such good hearted people in all my life. It is people like this that make your hospital so awesome. I hope one day I am able to help out people in need just as they helped me. Thank you!”

It’s a comfort knowing that there are people in the world who perform acts of kindness because of the goodness in their hearts and not because they are required to do so. May we all encounter people like the nurses at Newberry County Memorial Hospital should we have an emergency.

 

Brian Maney, Hometown Hero

Brian Maney doesn’t wear a cape or have supernatural powers, but to homebound patients enrolled in Clarendon Memorial Hospital’s home health program, he is a hero.

If a patient needs a wheelchair ramp, Brian builds it. Handrails, bed rails, canes — Brian builds it.

He has even been known to buy shoes for patients to use in their therapy sessions.

Brian performs these services out of the kindness of his heart and is not required to do these things as part of his job description.

 

A Priceless Gift

In the final stages of life, a dying cancer patient received a priceless gift from the compassionate oncology staff at Trident Health System.

The staff learned that the patient’s daughter, in a bed just two floors below him, had given birth to his grandson. Understanding that meeting his new grandchild would raise his spirits, the oncology and labor and delivery staffs coordinated to arrange a face-to-face meeting between granddad and baby. The young mother and baby, hospital bed and all, were whisked upstairs to the dying man’s bedside.

The staff could see by the look on the man’s face that the visit had more than elevated his spirit; it was a moment of a lifetime — a priceless gift. This extra effort brought more serenity to the patient in his last days than any medication or treatment could have provided.

It was a special moment, cherished by both family and staff — the kind of moment Trident Health System is dedicated to providing to every patient everyday.