Clarendon hospital now 3 years into marriage with McLeod Health

Given the ever-changing landscape of the health care industry, most would consider it as a move for the better and so do McLeod Health Clarendon Administrator Rachel Gainey and others.

Gainey spoke recently on the now three-year-old merger of former small independent provider Clarendon Memorial Hospital into McLeod Health System.

In the last several years, the health care industry has seen escalating costs, changes in reimbursements from the federal government and other changes that have made it very hard financially on small, independent provider hospitals especially in rural areas, Gainey said.

Numerous economies of scale and consolidations of services can be achieved by joining a hospital system and Clarendon Memorial did exactly that in July 2016 when it was acquired by Florence-based McLeod Health.

Three years into the merger, Gainey says it's been a "good marriage" since both organizations shared the same values of quality, service and community-based care.

With the acquisition, McLeod Health has been able to expand its footprint in South Carolina to a 12-county service area from the Midlands to the coast. When including border counties along the state line with North Carolina, that region expands to 18 counties.

And Clarendon has been able to maintain its heartbeat as a community by keeping a community-based hospital in Manning.

Gainey noted in the 21st Century world of economic development and site selection, business and industry are looking for thriving communities for their employees to settle in. Fundamental for that are good educational systems and good health care opportunities locally. Without a community-based hospital, counties will find success in economic development harder to achieve, she said.

Will Davis, a Clarendon County native who now works as a Charleston-area builder/developer with The Litchfield Company Real Estate, also said the merger was great for the local community.

"The merger was really a great thing to happen," Davis said. "It was huge from a development perspective. It would have been a tremendous loss if Clarendon lost that hospital."

'NEWER, BETTER, FASTER'

But, given the ever-challenging health care industry, McLeod's goal is not to just maintain the status quo in Clarendon with a hospital facility, Gainey said. Instead it's looking to transform health care in this region of the state with a tagline of "Newer, Better, Faster" to paint the picture, she said.

Since the acquisition, McLeod has been able to make new investments in numerous lines of equipment, technology and facility upgrades at McLeod Health Clarendon, Gainey said.

Also, in the area of people, McLeod has changed the culture of the workplace. As an example, Gainey said, at the time of the acquisition, the hospital's vacancy rate for nurses was 20%. Now, that openings' rate is down to 2.5 percent.

The total vacancy rate for all employees is currently between 2.5% and 3.5%.

"We have put a lot of focus into our people," Gainey said, "and we now have an environment where people want to work here. We don't have as much turnover."

Under the "Better" category, the hospital has hired four new physicians in the last year and in the near future is looking to build out its medical office building to expand physician office practices in order to bring in more doctors to the area.

Currently, the acute care hospital offers Primary Care, OB/GYN, General Surgery and Orthopedics, she said.

"But our intent is when we build out our medical office building," Gainey said, "then we will have additional space for Primary Care and space for specialists to come over and have clinics in this area on a rotating basis so that we can expand that access. Also, then we're looking to expand our Orthopedics and our General Surgery practices here."

Under the "Faster" category, McLeod Health Clarendon has made vast improvements in its emergency room department since 2016, according to Gainey, decreasing patient wait time and process inefficiencies.

The median turnaround time for an ER visit to the hospital now has been reduced to about two hours, which is less than the national average, she said. McLeod Health Clarendon has sustained that shortened ER visit time for the last two years, seen a 25% increase in total volume visits and increased patient satisfaction scores.

With the addition of McLeod Health Clarendon, there are now seven hospitals in the McLeod Health system, and it's the second-largest hospital system in South Carolina.

A 16-year veteran with McLeod Health, Gainey said the system has found the merger to be a good fit.

"McLeod Health has enjoyed the beginnings of our journey in this region," she said, "and we trust that patients will look to McLeod Health as the choice for medical excellence. At the end of the day, we are here to serve the patients and ensure we are meeting the needs of those who live in this region."