Live Oak doctors say they want to remove barriers to health care

LAKE CITY — The doctors with the new Live Oak Medical Center say they hope services such as urgent care will make it easier for residents in local rural areas to get the health care they need.

The goal of offering the service in Lake City as the center opened Monday is to handle “urgent but nonemergent” situations after regular business hours, Drs. Ernest Atkinson and Richard Ellis said. They practice at the new center along with Drs. Albert Mims and Wade Lamb.

Having urgent care locally frees the Lake City Community Hospital to deal with heart attacks, strokes and other true emergencies, Ellis said.

“We want to complement what’s already in place in the hospital and alleviate some of the burden on them,” Ellis said.

That also means a child who might have ended up in the emergency room with a cough or strep throat wouldn’t be exposed to patients in great pain after suffering major trauma, Mims said.

The hours for urgent care will be from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, although Mims said the hours will be flexible depending on the need.

Mims said that, in light of the country’s economic downturn, having to travel great distances for health care could be a barrier to people who need that care.

Urgent care is available in Florence, which Mims said receives $50 million a year in outmigration of health care spending from Lake City, according to an estimate by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

By offering urgent care locally, the Live Oak doctors hope to stop that outmigration, Mims said.

“That would help the (Lake City Community Hospital) thrive, we think,” he said.

Live Oak Medical Center also has opened an office in Kingstree. The doctors announced during Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Kingstree facility that Dr. Harry Floyd would begin working Monday at the Williamsburg County office.

The Lake City center was set to open Monday with its lab, X-ray, ultrasounds and urgent care ready to go, Lamb said.

Live Oak, however, is touting its focus not only on treating people when they’re sick, but keeping them from becoming ill in the first place. The center is tied in with an iH3 Wellness Center in Lake City, which combines the “traditional medical model” with preventive care, said Merideth Harrington, the wellness center’s executive director.

This week is an open house week for new and prospective members of the wellness center, Harrington said. The center’s equipment was scheduled to arrive Tuesday and be installed by Friday, in time to open this coming Monday, she said.

The medical center is waiting for a few certifications, such as a DHEC license for nuclear medicine, which it expects to offer within one or two weeks of opening, Lamb said.

Live Oak also will offer outpatient specialty clinics including cardiology and orthopedics and is considering others such as neurosurgery and podiatry, Atkinson said.

The doctors said they are aware that some services, such as CT and MRI scans, will overlap what’s offered at the Lake City Community Hospital. The equipment is necessary for the patients’ convenience and crucial to have on site when subspecialists need it, Mims said.

Live Oak also aims to collaborate with the Lake City hospital, which is working with iH3’s local physical therapy group to determine whether the two entities can share any services, Mims said.

The center has the same ambition of working with the Williamsburg Regional Hospital, which is in negotiations with Live Oak and consultants about offering wellness in the Kingstree office, Mims said.

Live Oak will have primary physicians at both locations. In Lake City, the primary doctor will be Lamb, and Atkinson will be the primary doctor in Kingstree.

Atkinson also will spend two days a week in Lake City. Ellis, meanwhile, will work three days a week in Lake City and one in Kingstree, and Mims will spend four days a week in Lake City and one in Kingstree.

“I’m excited about going to Kingstree; that’s where I grew up,” Mims said.

The doctors said they will track demographics to determine where most of their patients are and determine their schedule in each office accordingly, Mims said.

The Lake City facility is at 148 Sauls St., and the Kingstree facility is at 342 W. Main St.

For more information about Live Oak Medical Center, call the Lake City office at (843) 374-3621 or the Kingstree office at (843) 355-3621.