Lexington Medical Center Swansea celebrates 20th anniversary
July 20, 2016
Lexington Medical Center’s community medical center in Swansea is celebrating its 20th anniversary. For the past two decades, Lexington Medical Center Swansea has provided convenient medical care close to home for people in the community.
Lexington Medical Center Swansea opened in 1996 with a staff of 10 employees, a lab, X-Ray machine and the ability to perform minor procedures. Clinicians saw an average of 30 patients each day. At the time, the Swansea facility filled an important gap in the community. Before it opened, some patients had no other choice than to drive from Swansea to Lexington Medical Center’s Emergency department 20 minutes away in West Columbia. The community medical center was a more appropriate setting to treat the kind of problems that previously had many people traveling to the ER.
Today, Lexington Medical Center Swansea provides urgent care as well as internal medicine, OB/GYN care, X-Ray and lab services, a medical social worker and a certified diabetes educator. In addition, the hospital’s mobile mammography unit travels there to offer digital mammography to patients. In 2015, Lexington Medical Center Swansea had more than 22,000 patient visits. That’s about 60 patient visits each day.
“This year, Lexington Medical Center Swansea opened the Swansea Community Wellness Path and Gardens, a 400-foot track that patients and community members can use for exercise,” said Brandon Spires, practice manager at Lexington Medical Center Swansea. “The track opens to a vegetable garden that the diabetes educator uses during classes. The garden is made up of six 8 by 8 raised planters with squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes and more.”
Lexington Medical Center Swansea holds a community health fair each spring, community meetings and patient advisory committee meetings where representatives assess community needs and concerns, and work to address them.
Lexington Medical Center Swansea is one of six community medical centers in Lexington Medical Center’s network of care. A direct link to the hospital’s emergency room and inpatient services allows for an easier transfer when a higher level of care is needed. Patients of the community medical centers also benefit from the knowledge, expertise and resources of the entire Lexington Medical Center network of care.
