A regional health care center is among options Bamberg and Barnwell counties are exploring as they seek ways – and citizen input – to maximize health care delivery in the two-county area and surrounding region.

The councils and hospital boards from each county have collaborated and asked Stroudwater Capital, an independent adviser retained by both counties, to meet directly with and listen to the ideas of interested citizens and health professionals.

Stroudwater Capital is a subsidiary of Stroudwater Associates. A health care advisory firm founded in 1985 by a group of senior health care executives to provide clients with expertise, Stroudwater Associates offers strategic, financial, facility planning and operational consulting services to a national clientele from its offices in Maine, Georgia, Texas and Arizona.

“These two counties will face a historic decision process for the development of an optimal and sustainable health care delivery system that will be here to serve the Lowcountry’s residents for many years to come, protecting their health and driving general economic improvement,” Stroudwater Capital President Joseph Lupica said.

“We have assigned several colleagues from our firm, including a medical doctor, to attend private listening sessions and to perform the considerable research and analysis our clients have requested,” he said.

Bamberg County Council Chairman Clair Guess said Bamberg County Council and the Bamberg County Hospital Board have discussed ways to provide better health care systems for county citizens.

“We have come to the conclusion that because the medical services in our market have changed so dramatically over the years since the Bamberg County Memorial Hospital was first established, we must now reach out and develop a system that more adequately meets the needs of the people through the benefit of newly designed institutions,” he said, those that may include a separate regional health care center.

“We’re considering the option of an agreement with Barnwell County and perhaps other surrounding counties to develop a more regional health care system. The plans, as I understand it, would be to ensure that each community has the facility available for emergency care and stabilization and that no drive times for emergency services should be vastly changed. But once stabilization has been achieved, then it’s very likely that the efficiency of the system would be met by transferring those patients to a much larger and more well-equipped regional center which, of course, would still be very convenient to all of the citizens,” Guess said.

Guess said no plans have been made as far as location and ownership of the center, neither are there any “candidates” awaiting to enter into an agreement with either county.

“But what we are doing is asking our hospital administration experts to go look into the marketplace and see what options we may have. We don’t know what the ownership profile will be. It depends largely on who would pay for it. We are trying desperately to create a situation where taxpayers in both counties could be relieved by the burden of the ongoing costs associated with hospital care,” Guess said.

Lou-Ann P. Carter, chairperson of the Bamberg County Hospital Board, said the board’s goal is to have a viable, state-of-the-art health care system for county citizens.

“Health care has gone through many changes globally and locally. It is imperative that we leave the past in the past and move forward. In order to move forward, we need the input from our citizens. We want our citizens to feel comfortable talking to these independent ‘listeners’ from Stroudwater, who will gather information from the public,” Carter said.

Don Alexander, chairman of the Barnwell County Hospital Board, said the input from citizens, physicians and others is needed as potential changes in health care delivery take shape, particularly since “it is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s era of specialized health care to operate as an independent rural hospital.”

Dr. Danette McAlhaney, a family practice physician and Bamberg County Hospital Board member, said, “We can use all this input to help our public officials adopt a set of community objectives for a cooperative health care delivery model.”

Stroudwater Capital’s team of representatives will be visiting both counties over the next several months to conduct its analysis and hold face-to-face meetings with the counties’ residents either privately or in small groups.

Anyone who wants to set up an appointment to speak confidentially with a member of the Stroudwater team can call Denice Parler, executive assistant to the Bamberg County Hospital’s chief executive officer, at 803-245-6228. Ella O’Berry, administrative assistant to the Barnwell County Hospital CEO, can be reached at 803-541-4365.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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