Community Health Initiatives

When Palmetto Health was created in 1998, we promised to help our community's indigent, uninsured and medically underserved by pledging $17 million in community health initiatives within seven years. We have fulfilled this promise, but our efforts continue. Palmetto Health has promised 10 percent of its annual bottom line to fund community health initiatives well into the future.

With input from members of the community and collaboration with a wide variety of agencies, Palmetto Health's Community Health office has addressed critical community health care needs in Richland, Lexington, Fairfield and Pickens counties.

We're pleased to provide our community the 2012 Annual Report of the Tithe. Click here for a .pdf version of our report.

You can also view the stories of the participants and community advocates featured in the 2012 report on the Palmetto Health You Tube channel:

• Cancer Initiatives
• Diabetes Health Initiatives
• Richland Care
• Maternal and Child Health: Teen Initiatives
• Maternal and Child Health: Palmetto Healthy Start
• Community Programs: MIRCI
• Community Programs: PASOs

Community Health Initiatives include:

• Cancer Education and Prevention
• Real Men Prostate Health Campaign
• Free Yourself From Smoking
• Trumpeter – Tobacco prevention campaign and contest
• Diabetes Initiative
• Palmetto Healthy Start – For new parents and expecting moms and dads
• Teen Talk! It's time to make good choices. 
• Richland Care

Additional Community Health Programs: 

Dental Health Initiative
In partnership with Family Service Center, Palmetto Health provides dental services to underinsured and Medicaid-eligible and -ineligible children and adults at the Children's Dental Clinic. These patients often have difficulty in finding a dentist who will accept new Medicaid patients. Nationally, the adult program was one of the first of its kind to be offered. For more information about this program, contact Diane Bouknight, Family Service Center, 803-576-2739.

Palmetto Health also partners with the Columbia Oral Health Clinic to provide dental services to HIV/AIDS patients who otherwise could not afford dental care. As the only program of its kind in South Carolina, it provides these high-risk patients with a source for dental care. For more information about this program, contact the Columbia Oral Health Clinic, 803-779-4795.

Family Connection–Project Breathe Easy
Project Breathe Easy is an asthma education program developed by Family Connection. Palmetto Health provides funds to enhance services to asthmatic children and their families through the provision of asthma education, transportation and medical assistance to patients. Program participants have shown a reduction in missed days from school and work, fewer emergency room visits, and a reduction in the number of preventable asthma emergencies.

Parish Nurse Program
Palmetto Health, in collaboration with the Columbia Housing Authority, initiated a Parish Nurse Medical Program for elderly and indigent residents of Columbia Housing Authority. Residents of these facilities were anticipated to have a diagnosis of high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, obesity and other medical problems. These residents, who often receive little or no medical care, benefit from Parish Nurse services.