McLeod men’s group gifts cardiac defibrillator
Kathy Baxley, Executive Director of the Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County, right, receives four cardiac defibrillators.
Photo Contributed
The Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County is a free clinic founded in 2000 in Darlington with a satellite office founded in 2006 in Hartsville. The clinic partners with McLeod Regional Medical Center to help deliver free health care and free pharmaceuticals to the uninsured and working poor residents of Darlington County. To serve such needy local residents better, McLeod Regional Medical Center has created, since 2013, a division known as Access Health of the Pee Dee, whose mission is to “navigate uninsured and underinsured patients to medical homes to see a regular medical doctor or nurse practitioner, and receive appropriate medications and hopefully improve their lifestyle.” The Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County joins other local caregivers such as Hope Health and Mercy Medicine to provide “federally qualified health care” to the financially challenged residents of a 7 – 8 county area. As MRMC treats “self-pay” patients in its hospital, case management and social workers try to get such patients qualified for Medicaid, but this is not always possible, and “free” clinics are ultimately needed. Furthermore, with the changing state of health insurance in America today, it is reasonable to expect that the poor will always be with us to some degree, and health care providers such as the Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County will inevitably be needed.
Recently the “McLeod Men” foundation, a charitable arm of McLeod Regional Medical Center has given a grant to Access Health of the Pee Dee, to pay for four cardiac defibrillators, one of which was given to the Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County on January 11. Increasingly, many medical providers, private offices, athletic and sports arenas, and public gatherings are often equipped with defibrillators to cardiovert people who have a fatal arrhythmia of their heart, and thereby potentially save their lives. Defibrillators in the general public are rarely needed. When they are, they can potentially save a life and cardiovert that patient’s abnormal rhythm, thus saving precious minutes before arriving at the emergency room, where more definitive therapy can be carried out. The Free Medical Clinic of Darlington County is proud and honored to receive such a gift from the “McLeod Men” through Access Health of the Pee Dee.
