Marlboro Park Hospital moves forward

Marlboro Park Hospital is taking great strides to improve its reputation within the community and county. In recent years the hospital has struggled in retention of both administrative and medical staff and the hospital has lost over a million dollars in the last two years each. “We now have a great local administrative team in place who has a vested interest in making sure the hospital succeeds”, states Jeff Reece, CEO. All of the administrative team is from either South or North Carolina. Jeff Reece, Chief Executive Officer, is from Balsam, North Carolina; Troy Pickens, Chief Financial Officer, is from Lexington, SC; Anita Crawford, Chief Nursing Officer, is from Cheraw, SC; Candace Morton, Chief Quality Officer, is from Chesterfield, SC; and Christi Meggs, Human Resources Director, is from Lake City, SC.

Marlboro Park is accredited by The Joint Commission. The accreditation process requires the hospital to always be survey ready. “We never know when a survey team is going to show up on our door steps to inspect our services”, Candace Morton states. Marlboro Park Hospital’s quality is measured by outside organizations every quarter through what is called core measures. Anyone can compare our hospital against any hospital in the nation by visiting www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. We are proud of our scores. Currently we have a 95% in meeting all of the indicators. Marlboro Park Hospital remains among a hospital with high scores in this area.

“It is our goal for the community to continue using the services Marlboro Park offers so that we can remain viable long into the future”, Reece states.“Marlboro Park paid over 10 million dollars in salaries to employees, paid $196,000 in local taxes to the county, and provided over 8 million dollars in free care in 2008. Without these dollars going back into the county the local economics would be a lot worse” states Pickens. The community can help the most by making sure they let their doctors know they want the service provided at Marlboro Park Hospital. Reece states, “If an individual wants to know if the hospital can provide the service that he/she needs and he or she does not know the answer, they can contact me at (843) 454-8650.” He further states there are other health care organizations with a presence in our county who are sending patients to hospitals outside the county when the service can be provided locally at Marlboro Park. It will take all of us working together to make sure the hospital becomes financially fit.