Overview

The Lakelands Rural Health Network (LRHN) is a nonprofit (501(c)3) multicounty network developed in 2004 with the guidance of South Carolina Office of Rural Health to enhance efficiency, expand access, coordinate and improve the quality of essential health care services and strengthen the rural health care system as a whole. This Network has unique insight into the strengths and challenges facing the local health care system and the health status of its residents. The South Carolina Network’s geographic area includes Abbeville, Laurens, Newberry, Saluda, Edgefield, McCormick, and Greenwood counties.

Vision:

Healthy people living in engaged communities with access to the full continuum of health services.

LRHN Area

Mission:

To improve the health status of the Lakelands area through a collaborative economically viable health network.

LRHN Governing Structure:

Lakelands Rural Health Network Bylaws and Memorandum of Agreement
Provider Organization – Established Board of Directors
Officers and Committee Structure
Lakelands Clinical Leadership Council
Formalized Annual Strategic Planning Process
Fiscal Agent/Grantee – South Carolina Office Rural Health

LRHN BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

  • Dr. Graham Adams, SC Office of Rural Health
  • Dr. Becky Campbell, DHEC Region 1 Public Health
  • Dr. Gary Goforth, Montgomery Center for Family Medicine
  • Mr. Rich D’Alberto, Laurens County Health Care System
  • Mr. Rich Osmus, Abbeville Area Medical Center
  • Mr. Jim Pfeiffer, Self Regional Healthcare
  • Ms. Patricia Robinson, Edgefield County Hospital
  • Ms. Sue Veer, Carolina Health Centers, Inc.
  • Mr. Frank Wideman, The Self Foundation
  • Ms. Dawn Wichmann, LRHN Executive Director

Strategic Goals:

  • To implement a sound strategy for sustaining the Network’s operations.
  • To develop coordinate networks of care that increase access and quality of care for low income uninsured people.
  • To develop a regional health information technology plan that includes expansion of an existing electronic health record for rural primary care providers.
  • To establish a regional quality improvement collaborative.
  • To increase the percentage of the Lakelands population, age 65 and older, who have been immunized to prevent pneumonia to the Healthy People 2010 goal of 90% – Pneumonia Awareness Campaign.
  • To implement patient education, control, and continuity of care for diabetes – I Can Control Diabetes.
  • To promote early cancer detection and prevention, Screening Saves Lives, an educational campaign targeting colon, rectum, and prostate cancer.