Something to Celebrate...

CareSouth Carolina Recognized Nationally With Prestigious Award

CareSouth Carolina has been recognized as a Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) Champion for their outstanding commitment, achievements, and innovations in addressing substance use disorder. This prestigious award, presented by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, acknowledges CareSouth Carolina's dedication to combating the opioid crisis through the Rural Communities Opioid Response

CareSouth Carolina's Director of Behavioral Health, Amy Cook, LISW-CP/S, and Daniel Myers, MAT/SUD Program Director, received the award in Washington, D.C. The recognition is a testament to the organization's tireless efforts and transformative initiatives in addressing substance use disorder within their community.

CareSouth Carolina has played a pivotal role in establishing the Rural Opioid Community Response Consortium. This consortium, formed under its leadership, focuses on destigmatizing treatment for opiate and other substance use disorders. With its three main objectives—prevention, treatment, and sustained recovery—the consortium aims to support individuals of all ages struggling with opiate use disorder or dependency.

McLeod Welcomes New Family Medicine Residents

McLeod Health is pleased to welcome ten new residents to the McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program. The new physicians are: Alex Ash, DO; Miguel Caldera, DO; Miranda Hannah, MD; Les Herbst, MD; Prakshal Jain, DO; Amanda Jimenez, MD; Sarah Kaiser, DO; Jonathan Lubeck, MD; Charity Miles, DO; and Joice Muckom, MD.

The McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program is a program at McLeod Health designed to train the “physicians of tomorrow” in an effort to increase the availability of family medicine physicians for patients in the Pee Dee and other rural areas of South Carolina.

“The Residency Program’s mission is to graduate skilled family physicians who will provide superior health care services to underserved areas of South Carolina,” said Dr. Gerard Jebaily, Program Director.

Their mission is being fulfilled. In existence since 1980, there have been 284 graduates from the McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program with 60 percent of the physicians staying in South Carolina and the McLeod Health service area of Northeastern South Carolina and Southeastern North Carolina.

“We welcome our new residents and their families to the Pee Dee area,” continued Dr. Jebaily. “A wonderful accomplishment in these physician’s lives is about to be realized as they begin their three-year residency program here at McLeod. Embarking on a career of caring for the sick and the infirmed is a lifelong dream for most of us in medicine.”

These physicians will care for patients at the McLeod Family Medicine Center, 144 North Ravenel Street, Florence on the McLeod Regional Medical Center campus. For information on becoming a new patient call 843-777-2800.

Photo: McLeod welcomes the following residents to the McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program: Back row: Dr. Miguel Caldera, Dr. Les Herbst, Dr. Alex Ash, Dr. Prakshal Jain, Dr. Jonathan Lubeck

MPD Electric Cooperative Donates $2,500 to Pee Dee Coalition

MPD Electric Cooperative is pleased to donate $2,500 to the Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Assault to assist the New Beginnings Transitional Shelter organization with providing comprehensive services to formerly abused women and children who are homeless as a result of the violence they have experienced. New Beginnings is located in the Wallace community and provides a supportive environment for women to rebuild their lives.

The contribution is part of the cooperative’s bank, CoBank, and its “Sharing Success” program. CoBank matched MPD Electric’s contribution for the Pee Dee Coalition.

Honda Brings ATVs to Florence Boys & Girls Club

Engineers from Honda brought ATVs to the Florence Boys & Girls Club on Tuesday, July 11. In the last year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Pee Dee Area have added or upgraded STEM labs at all our sites to fuel youths’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. That showed as the bleachers of kids peppered them with questions ranging from how fast they could make an ATV to their favorite subjects in school.

FUN FACTS Since 1998, Honda’s South Carolina Manufacturing has produced over 3 million products beginning with ATVs in 1998, ATV engines in 2000, and SxS in 2013. Of our Club kids, 94% enjoy learning new things and 86% have improved academic performance.

Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center Awarded Spring 2023 ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade from Leapfrog Group

Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center (CPRMC) received an “A” Hospital Safety Grade for Spring 2023 from The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit upholding the standard of patient safety in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. This national distinction celebrates CPRMC’s achievements in prioritizing patient safety by protecting patients from preventable harm and errors. The new grades reflect performance primarily during the height of the pandemic, and represent the third consecutive “A” grade awarded to CPRMC.

“We are thrilled to once again earn Leapfrog’s highest safety rating,” said Bill Little, CEO of CPRMC. “It’s quite an honor, as only about a quarter of the 3,000 or so hospitals reviewed achieve an “A” grade. We view it as a validation of the hard work of our team members each day to provide high-quality, compassionate care in as safe an environment as possible. That’s why we’re here, and it is gratifying to have a national organization recognize our efforts.”

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization, assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” grade to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 national performance measures reflecting errors, accidents, injuries, and infections, as well as systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm.

$66 Million Distribution Center Construction Begins in Florence County

The construction of Cheney Brothers' new $66 million distribution center in Florence County is under way. The project will be creating about 280 new jobs in the area and will be located at the Pee Dee Commerce City East Industrial Park!

The expansion will consist of a 400,000 square-foot distribution facility with major distribution access to our interstates and state roadways.

This large facility will be a welcome expansion to an already growing business community here in Florence County.

“This new update of Hospital Safety Grades shows that, at the national level, we saw deterioration in patient safety with the pandemic,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “But this hospital received an ‘A’ despite those challenges. I congratulate all the leaders, staff, volunteers, and clinicians who together made that possible.”

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harm to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring.

To see CPRMC’s full grade details and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit HospitalSafetyGrade.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Twitter, Facebook and via its newsletter.