People seeking primary care will not be adversely affected by curtailed operational hours at health clinics in Public Health Region 5 of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, DHEC officials say.

Thom Berry said the agency is adjusting when clinics will be open, especially smaller facilities in rural areas, in response to recent rounds of state budget cuts.

“We are closing some locations on specific days,” Berry said. “What we are doing is to make sure that if one location is closed for a day, the next closest site is open. For example, the distance between the locations in Denmark and Bamberg is only seven miles. When one of them closed for a day, the next closest location would be open.”

Berry said the Bamberg County main clinic is now closed on Mondays and Fridays, while the Denmark clinic is closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In Orangeburg County, the Holly Hill clinic is closed on Fridays. Calhoun County’s only clinic, the county health department located in St. Matthews, is closed on Thursday.

Public Health Region 5 Director of Clinical Operations Vicki Green says closing the smaller clinics is a move that could have taken place prior to recent state budget cuts.

“In our area, we still have a lot of extra sites,” Green said. “We have tried in the past to say we don’t have enough staff to operate five days a week at the smaller clinics, especially in Orangeburg County. After the last round of cuts, we sat down with supervisors at each site about the utilization of the clinics, trying to determine the maximum amount of time needed to service the customer loads. We had them open five days a week but they weren’t always well utilized.

“Both the North and Elloree clinics were operating on a less-than-five-day schedule previous to the cuts, while Holly Hill was a five-day-a-week site,” she said. “Efficient clinic utilization suggested that the North and Elloree clinics could be closed one additional day a week and the workload in Holly Hill could be accomplished in four days.”

Green said many are not aware of what the DHEC health clinics do, and most services are by appointment.

“We don’t provide primary care; we’re not a doctor’s office,” Green said. “That’s not our role in South Carolina. We only provide services for prevention -- like health education, immunizations and nutrition -- intervention and control of sexually transmitted and communicable diseases, women and children’s, environmental health and vital records services. At the main health department clinic in Orangeburg, every service may not be provided every day, but that location will be open five days a week.”

“We do take some walk-ins,” she said. “For example, if someone realized they had unprotected sex the previous night, they could come in without an appointment and receive counseling services. Scheduling customers by appointment allows us to plan staffing for the clinics, like utilizing the WIC staff between the Allendale and Barnwell clinics. When one clinic is closed, those employees staff the other county clinic. The curtailed operating hours simply mean that someone may not get their shot or baby formula on a particular day.”

Region 5 statistics for last year show that Orangeburg County clinics served 38,582 people. Green noted that number, with some minor fluctuations, has generally hit a plateau.

“We may see some increase in the number of people we serve due to the economy, but that probably won’t happen until the spring or summer of (2009),” Green said. “But Family Health Centers also serve many of the same clients; one is located in Vance close to our Holly Hill clinic.

“In Denmark, the clinic and the Family Health Center are located in the same building.”

T&D Staff Writer Phil Sarata can be reached at psarata@timesanddemocrat.com and 803-533-5540. Discuss this and other stories at www.TheTandD.com.

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