The Singleton Healing Center and the Medical University of South Carolina are working to bring higher-quality health care to South Carolina’s rural communities.
Singleton Healing Center’s community-based approach
Access to health care in South Carolina’s rural areas has been a matter of concern for generations. This concern stems from a variety of issues, both at the community level and at the health care level. Health education and access to nutritious foods are often lacking outside of the state’s metro areas. Financial strain, workforce shortages and costeffectiveness have pushed many rural facilities to the brink. Local leaders and statewide institutions are searching for ways to reimagine what rural health can be and are actively working to make high-quality health care more accessible throughout the state.
This is an issue that Monnieque Singleton, MD, founder of Singleton Healing Center, dedicates his time to solving, one patient at a time. Since the 1980s, he has been practicing medicine in rural communities across South Carolina. He currently sees patients in his Orangeburg and Santee locations and holds health education sessions in Columbia.
For Dr. Singleton, the missing pieces must be built from the ground up by educating the community on topics such as nutrition, healthy choices and active lifestyles. He also emphasized the importance of a health care model built around wholeness, recognizing that physical, emotional and spiritual health are interconnected. Over his decades of practice, he has watched the gap in health outcomes widen rather than narrow. The reason, in his opinion, is that the resources necessary to treat the whole person rarely reach the communities that need them most.
“There’s no reimbursement for the things that keep people healthy,” he said. “While the system readily pays for things like bypass surgeries and dialysis, there is far less financial support for nutrition counseling, mental health resources, stress reduction or preventive education. Those are simple tools that could stop chronic disease in its tracks. Rural communities are left managing the consequences of preventable conditions.”
That is why Dr. Singleton’s approach focuses on education and daily living. He teaches patients about the relationship between what they eat and how they feel, urging them to return to unprocessed foods, drink water rather than sugary or artificially flavored beverages and move their bodies. “If God made it, eat it. If man made it, stay away from it,” he smiled. “A half-hour of exercise five days a week paired with cleaner nutrition can be transformative. The challenge is helping patients recognize that transformation is possible and giving them the support and knowledge to pursue it.”
Support groups have become one of his most powerful tools. Patients living with diabetes, hypertension, chronic pain or addiction meet regularly to learn and share obstacles and solutions. “That’s what shifting the paradigm looks like,” Dr. Singleton said. “It’s a heavy lift, but, if we lift together, the change is real.”
Education is also at the heart of his new kitchen classroom, designed to let patients taste and learn about healthier foods. Grant support will help bring that vision fully to life, but, even now, the concept underscores his belief that good health begins with understanding and that rural communities can make positive impacts on their health when given the tools to do so.
MUSC Health’s statewide strategy
While Dr. Singleton’s work focuses on reshaping care experiences at the community level, the Medical University of South Carolina Health is addressing the rural health crisis from a statewide perspective. MUSC Health, as a state authority, considers the care of vulnerable and rural populations central to its mission. According to Patrick Cawley, MD, CEO, of MUSC Health and executive vice president for health affairs, that mission plays out in several ways: through presence, mobile access, telehealth and partnership.
In some communities, presence means establishing MUSC-operated hospitals or clinics directly in rural areas. In others, it means stepping in when existing hospitals are struggling and working with the state to rebuild something sustainable. MUSC did this recently in Williamsburg County with the MUSC Health Black River Medical Center. “There were two hospitals not far from there, one north and one south, who were having a hard time making it. We basically combined those two smaller hospitals and built a new one with help from the state,” he explained.
The new facility became the first in the county to offer 3D mammography, among many other improvements to accessibility. MUSC Health has also expanded its network of rural clinics and recruited physicians and advanced practice providers who can deliver care closer to home.
When a permanent local presence is not feasible, mobile clinics help fill the gaps by bringing routine care, screenings and wellness services directly into rural communities.
Telehealth has become another cornerstone of MUSC Health’s strategy; as one of the nation’s Telehealth Centers of Excellence, MUSC Health opens the door for patients to access high-level health care without having to travel. Through partnerships, MUSC Health’s telehospital services enable specialist consultations and remote monitoring with local hospitals that may lack in-house specialty staffing.
Grant-funded programs ranging from maternal-fetal medicine to palliative care extend MUSC Health’s reach even further. MUSC providers frequently partner with organizations such as The Duke Endowment to bring innovative models to rural South Carolinians, with around a dozen grants each year dedicated specifically to rural health efforts.
Though Dr. Singleton and MUSC Health are not affiliated, both highlight that no single solution will solve the rural health crisis. It will take a combined effort of community-level innovation, statewide commitment and a willingness to rethink what health care means and how it is delivered.
By Anne Toole
