ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — Regional Medical Center (RMC) is opening a new outpatient neurology facility in Orangeburg. Hospital officials say prior to this facility, there was an absence of a neurology clinic, and it was felt among many patients in the area.
“It was a big disparity or gap in care. For many years before I joined, there was no neurologist over here so many diagnoses were getting missed. This was impacting our communities at large," said neurology director Dr. Tushar Trivedi.
According to Dr. Tushar Trivedi, Orangeburg is located in what's called a "stroke belt," meaning there are a high number of stroke cases in the area. In many cases, the only option was the emergency room.
“What would probably happen is that they go to the [emergency department] ED and then they get discharged from the ED because we didn’t have any inpatient neurology so if they had the access they can go to a referral outside but what I’m really sad to say is a lot of them did not have the access," said Regional Medical Center's director of operations Dr. Sabrina Robinson.
Due to a lack of access to neurology specialists, many of these patients were not receiving adequate follow-up care and didn't have the means to travel to Columbia or Charleston to get it.
Other common neurological conditions like epilepsy, dementia and multiple sclerosis will now be able to receive the care they need.
“We would like to address this gap, see these patients. Hopefully, it will be very easy for them to see someone locally, and hopefully, we can help them at the right time frame so their disabilities [do] not progress," said Travedi.
The facility will officially open on Monday. There is already a waiting list of patients.
RMC Neurology is located at 1103 Cook Road in Orangeburg.