A rural health clinic affiliated with Clemson University has opened up a location in Orangeburg.
Clemson Rural Health has opened the Clemson Health Clinic in Orangeburg at 1181 Hutto St. near the Regional Medical Center to provide primary care and chronic disease prevention and management.
“Our hope is that we can support your existing care that is here that we can work with County Council with your county government and others to help meet needs,” Clemson Rural Health Director Dr. Ron Gimbel said during Calhoun County Council’s Jan. 23 meeting. “We exist to improve health equity and outcomes.
“We want to be out here. We want to help people,” Gimbel said.
The clinic, which opened Jan. 9, is operational Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is closed from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
The clinic will primarily serve residents of Orangeburg, Bamberg, Barnwell and Calhoun Counties with in-person appointments, telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
Led by nurse practitioner Donna Atkinson, a certified diabetes care and education specialist in the region, the clinic will heavily focus on chronic disease prevention and management, according to a clinic press release.
The clinic will be staffed with a multidisciplinary staff including nurse practitioners, dietitians, social workers, community health workers, health educators, nurses, research and administrative staff, partnering with collaborating physicians.
The hub includes a physical clinic, mobile health units, a prescription program, nutrition and cooking classes.
Gimbel said the Clemson Health Clinic at Orangeburg partners with the Regional Medical Center to provide complementary services for the hospital and to accept referrals from physicians.
Gimbel said the Orangeburg clinic will serve as a hub for Orangeburg, Calhoun, Bamberg and Barnwell counties.
In Orangeburg, the clinic will have two mobile health units that would come to Calhoun County and the other counties once a week and provide services to the community. Gimbel said CRH is finalizing its weekly mobile unit outreach schedules and will make it public when finalized.
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“We have one Sprinter size mobile health unit (single exam room) that will operate from the clinic now … and within a couple weeks our newest large (two exam room mobile health unit) will be operating out from the clinic as well,” Gimbel said.
The physical clinic and the mobile health units will have a total of 10 staff members.
“The idea is to bring care to the people,” Gimbel said, noting many people find it difficult to travel to a hospital or doctor to receive primary care.
CRH will partner with the RMC’s mobile units in providing services as well, Gimbel said.
CRH is an outreach of Clemson University that aims to provide rural and underserved communities health care and to reduce premature deaths, unnecessary hospitalizations and to improve health and wellness.
In addition to the clinic and mobile units, Gimbel said CRH wants to expand its Best Chance network, a federal program that provides low income women for surgical and breast cancer screening, as well as Wise Woman, a program for cardiovascular screening and education.
In the WISEWOMAN (Well-Integrated Screening and Evaluation for WOMen Across the Nation) program, women will be able to receive education on healthy habits.
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Gimbel says CRH wants to be a one-stop shop for women to receive all their annual exams and is also working to on its new Regional Integrated Life Span Diabetes Program for Women to help women with hypertension and diabetes.
The organization also has a new remote patient-monitoring and virtual care program that helps to better monitor women’s health care needs from their own homes.
Eventually, Gimbel said the goal is to also provide students at South Carolina State University, Claflin University and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College clinical internships to encourage them to remain in rural healthcare settings.
For more information about the Clemson Health Clinic at Orangeburg call 803-516-4227. The clinic can also be reached at clemsonruralhealth@clemson.edu
