CareSouth Carolina Will Operate Medical Center in Chesterfield

December 2, 2004

CareSouth Carolina, Inc. will begin providing comprehensive primary health care services in the Town of Chesterfield in early 2005.  For nearly two years, CareSouth Carolina has been performing community development activities in the community of Chesterfield. The organization presently operates a community development office in the former Perry Clinic.  Through that community development work, all segments of the Chesterfield community were involved in producing a workable community development plan that would increase access to medical services for the people who live in the community.      

CareSouth Carolina has received a $650,000 annualized grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to enact portions of that plan and bring medical services to Chesterfield.   Once fully implemented, these services will include two full-time physicians, a mid-level medical provider, a behavioral health counselor, pharmaceutical assistance and other support services to create better access to primary health care for those living in the community, especially those struggling to access needed medical services because of insurance status and other barriers.   The new center will operate out of the former Perry Clinic at 500 West Boulevard in the Town of Chesterfield and will eventually include the hiring of 17 employees and a first-year investment of more than $1 million.   The center will begin operations early in 2005 with the hiring of its first physician.   In its third year, the center will provide primary health care for nearly 5,000 individuals, many presently without health insurance, in Chesterfield.  

CareSouth Carolina is a private, non-profit community-owned business that also operates medical centers in Cheraw, Society Hill, Bennettsville, Lake View, Hartsville and Bishopville.  Overall services provided by CareSouth Carolina include family practice, OB-GYN, pediatrics, geriatrics, nutrition, social services, clinical counseling, pharmaceutical services, laboratory and X-Ray.

 “CareSouth Carolina has been invested in the Chesterfield community for nearly two years,” said Ann Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of CareSouth Carolina. “However, our investment in Chesterfield County stretches back to our roots as the Society Hill Family Health Clinic.  We began operating that center in 1980 and have been serving individuals from Chesterfield County for years.    We are extremely proud of the relationships we have developed with the Town of Chesterfield, Chesterfield General Hospital and many others in the community.   We are extremely delighted to have the support of the people living in the Chesterfield community.  As a community health center, we have the experience and expertise to provide primary care in rural communities. This is what we do. It fits our mission, and we look forward to expanding our role and delivering the kind of services the people in Chesterfield need and deserve.”

CareSouth Carolina has grown from a small community health center with four employees in Society Hill, South Carolina, to a regional health care system headquartered in Hartsville with nine primary care sites, over 230 employees and recognized as a national model of success in the delivery of health services to those in need in rural communities.

CareSouth Carolina has been providing primary health care services in the Pee Dee for 24 years.  CareSouth Carolina received the 1999 Community Health Center Achievement Award from the South Carolina Primary Care Association.  In October of 2000, CareSouth Carolina became one of only 15 ambulatory care organizations in the state to be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations and the only ambulatory care center in the Pee Dee to have earned this mark of national excellence. In 2001, CareSouth Carolina received the outstanding rural practice award from the South Carolina Rural Health Association and, in 2002, CareSouth was profiled for the National Coalition on Health Care and Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s  “Accelerating Change Today (A.C.T.) – For America’s Health” publication on best practices in treating chronic diseases.  In the past year, CareSouth Carolina was profiled by such media as Continuous Improvement; qualityhealthcare.org; Caring for the Ages and numerous other local, state and national publications. In December 2003, CareSouth Carolina was cited in a Wall Street Journal article on the state of health care in America for its ability to provide cost-effective quality care for the most vulnerable of patients. 

“There’s one thing we at CareSouth Carolina understand,” said Lewis. “Making health care access a reality means more that just opening the doors of a medical facility.  It means being a part of the community you are serving.  We are that.  For over twenty years, through thick and thin, we have been providing the services the community needed in the manner they wanted them provided. It has always been our philosophy, and I believe it is why we have been successful.  Everyone deserves first-class health care, and it’s our mission to deliver it in a professional and compassionate manner. This new center means we can expand our involvement and provide better access to that care to the people in Chesterfield. We’re thrilled!”