WHY DO YOU THINK CHARLESTON HAS BECOME A REGIONAL MEDICAL HUB?
We have become a large training site for medical students as well as nursing students and all kinds of allied health professionals.
We also have a large number of residents and fellows, physicians who train for six or seven years in different specialties. When you add all that training together, you end up with a lot of people who get to know Charleston and want to stay here.
IN WHAT MEDICAL AREAS DOES CHARLESTON AS A WHOLE AND YOUR HOSPITAL IN PARTICULAR EXCEL?
I think Charleston – particularly because of MUSC – has the entire range of health care specialties and availability. At MUSC we have pediatric care, neuro-sciences care, transplant, cancer care, heart and cardiac care, digestive disease, trauma care, infectious disease and any number of things.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR HOSPITAL/ SYSTEM’S PLACE IN THE LARGER CHARLESTON HEALTH CARE COMMUNITY?
The role at MUSC is to change what’s possible. We are an academic health system, which means we combine teaching and patient care, as well as the most cutting-edge research and innovative care there is. So we put all those things together, and we feel that it is our responsibility to take great care of the patient and to find new ways of doing things.
WHAT DOES HAVING A LARGE TEACHING HOSPITAL ADD TO THE OVERALL CHARLESTON PICTURE? CONVERSELY, WHAT ADVANTAGES DOES HAVING FOUR ADDITIONAL WORKING HOSPITALS IN THE AREA OFFER TO MUSC AND ITS STUDENTS?
I think having a large teaching hospital brings new people into Charleston at all times, at all different levels. That could be medical students, nursing students and allied health professionals. In addition, we have residents and fellows who come in regularly. Many of them see Charleston for the first time, and they fall in love with her.
In many of those hospitals, we have teaching arrangements where our own students are going there and learning as well.
ARE THERE AREAS OF COLLABORATION AMONG THE REGION’S MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS?
Yes. There’s all kinds of things we collaborate on, such as telehealth. Many of us also collaborate in teaching. And then there are many examples where we might do something with another system, such as Roper Health System, and we have been working closely with United Way in putting together a community health needs assessment.
