Distance should not matter in medical care choices

July 28, 2012 Little River, SC - Introductory remarks at the McLeod Air Reach ribbon cutting, laid out the case.  “It should not be distance that determines choices for patients,” said Marie Segars, Administrator McLeod Regional Medical Center. “They should not have to settle for good care when superior care is available.”

L-R (first 3) Brian Burrell, Dick Tinsley, Marie SegarsSegars was introducing the latest of the McLeod ‘REACH’ programs designed to bring medical service to the community and speed patients to the appropriate treatment. “Air Reach is not just a helicopter; it’s a medical service reaching out to the communities in the twelve county McLeod serves.”

McLeod Air Reach, a partnership between McLeod Health and Med-Trans Corporation, will utilize a Bell 407 helicopter. Based at the Marion County Airport, the Bell, with a maximum speed of 180 miles an hour, can reach most points in the North Strand in a matter of minutes.  With Air Reach, distance is no longer a factor in a patient’s decision.  Brian Burrell, Med-Trans Corp, explained, “From our base at the Marion airport we can be at Seacoast in 10-15 minutes, from Seacoast we can be at MUSC in another 15 minutes." To a round of applause, he added, "We just started May 30 and have already transported 31 people - some from car crashes, others to locations where they need specialized treatments."

Dr. Thomas Lewis, McLeod Emergency Medicine said, “McLeod currently has two critical care transport ambulance services.  Heart Reach is our coronary critical care unit and Child Reach is a mobile intensive care unit that transports critically ill children and newborns to McLeod Children’s Hospital.  Now with McLeod Air Reach joining the team we have another option to help transport patients to the closest medical facility with the fastest method.”

McLeod Regional Medical Center, McLeod Dillon, McLeod Loris and Seacoast are also partners in the REACH Stroke Network.  REACH is an acronym for Remote Evaluation of Acute Ischemic Stroke and is a web-based, tele-medicine system.   Through this system, urgent, specialized stroke consultations are delivered around the clock by Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) stroke experts to the local emergency physicians and nurses caring for acute stroke patients.  

The introduction of McLeod Air Reach took place at McLeod Seacoast in Little River, SC.  Seacoast is a 50-bed hospital offering a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services.  Its medical staff includes more than 120 active and affiliate physicians.  Seacoast Medical Center opened as an outpatient facility in October of 2000. On July 11, 2011, Seacoast Medical Center expanded to become a 50-bed hospital of which 32 are medical/surgical beds, 10 are progressive care and 8 are intensive care.