HopeHealth Expands Hours to Improve Access to Care

Florence, SC – HopeHealth is pleased to announce our latest endeavor to increase access to care. Hope Access now offers health care services Monday through Saturday from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm. The hours of operation are especially well suited for working professionals who are too busy to take off of work during the week for a medical appointment.

The expanded-hour program looks much like our other doctors’ offices. A physician and a nurse practitioner staff the center during the week, and a nurse practitioner is available after hours. A patient account representative helps patients complete needed paperwork. Lab services and radiology services are offered on-site.

Access Hope is not to be confused with an urgent care, however it is open to see patients who do not have a primary care provider and are seeking to establish a medical home. The expanded hours can also be accessed by existing HopeHealth patients.

If acute needs or symptoms occur after hours or on Saturday, HopeHealth patients can come to our practice, so that their medical and medication histories are accessible. This is certainly preferred over an urgent care where the providers are unfamiliar with the patient and the medical information. The program also provides a more appropriate, less expensive treatment alternative with same day care to patients with non-emergent problems. The intent is to provide low-risk, frequent utilizers of the emergency department with a consistent medical home, helping to improve the health of individuals, while reducing the number of unnecessary emergency department visits.

Hope Access is currently offered at the HopeHealth Medical Plaza in Florence. We will continue to assess the need for extended hours at each of our HopeHealth locations.

Community health centers like HopeHealth are nonprofit, community-owned organizations serving medically underserved communities in South Carolina. CHCs across the state served approximately 341,000 patients in 2014. HopeHealth has been serving the Pee Dee since 1991 and received funding to become a community health center in 2007, currently serving approximately 31,000 patients.

For more information, contact Director of Community Relations Tiffany Straus at tstraus@hope-health.org or 843.245.2291.

HopeHealth

HopeHealth educates its patients on the importance of having a health care home. As a primary care facility, HopeHealth’s medical team works to prevent and detect illness and the early onset of disease, provide routine physical examinations and promote overall healthy lifestyles.