Marion Regional remains top employer

MARION — Marion Regional Healthcare System is one of the area’s largest employers in Marion County, with more than 600 employees and featuring an ever-changing and growing environment.

AT A GLANCE

Name: Marion Regional Healthcare System
Established: 1997
Address: U.S. 76 between Marion and Mullins
CEO: Donald H. Lloyd
Employees: More than 600
Specialty: Health-care services
Web site: www.marioncountymedical.com

It also has 30 active physicians, 90 physicians on courtesy and consulting staff, and 29 advanced practice nurses and physician assistants.

“It’s a jewel box, and it’s holding a lot of jewels in this place,” Kay White, chief human resources and diversity officer, said.

The system is home to many practices, from family medicine to a wound healing center to the new Aynor Medical Center. Aynor Medical Center has been visited by more than 500 patients in less than three months since it opened its doors.

“We’ve got some of the best physicians. They care about these patients,” White said. “You would think some of them live in a house with these patients.”
White said having a caring staff is what makes the system stand out.

“I went into health care because I wanted to have a job where I could feel that I was in service to the community in some kind of way,” White said. “I want to feel good at the end of the day, and so I like being in an environment where your day is given in service to something bigger.”

In addition to the personal benefits of helping others, system employees have a benefits package — including medical insurance, dental insurance, free mammograms and prostate screenings along with the use of the wellness center — that can help them take care of themselves.

“We want you to be healthy. It’s a good benefit if we’re a health care system and then our work force is healthy,” White said.

She said there is a feeling of a secure work force because employees love the benefits.

“We try to take a more holistic approach to the work force. We have employee assistance programs for employees because every day is not a sunshiny day and you have to understand that,” White said. “If you want someone that’s going to be focused on that patient, you need to make sure that they truly are focused.”

White said part of health care is being on top of everything which is why the system will be introducing a new strategic plan soon to help focus on being the best in patient care, quality care and patient safety.

“Its definitely a revolution, not evolution, in health care. Evolution is not for health care,” White said.

Health care reform is another issue facing Marion Regional.

“I think the feel within the organization with health care reform coming is we don’t know. We don’t know what’s coming and how we’re going to have to adapt to accommodate the changes in law,” White said.

Before Marion Regional first opened its doors in 1997, there were two hospitals in the county: Mullins Hospital and Marion County Memorial Hospital.
Mullins Hospital was built after World War I and rebuilt in 1923 after a fire.

In Marion, Marion County Memorial was built in 1952 in memory of those who served in World War II.

Both of those facilities were closed down and combined into the current Marion Regional located between Marion and Mullins.

In December, Donald H. Lloyd was named president and CEO of Marion Regional Healthcare System after the retirement of Harold E. Tucker.

White said when the facility was first built, it was directly in the middle of Marion and Mullins. It since has shifted because the city limits have changed, but White said the location is still ideal for serving both communities.

“I think that’s why we all work well together because we have that unspoken objective, the patient,” White said.