Issue Position: Coronavirus and Our Healthcare System

Issue Position

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic there have been a lot of lessons learned about pandemics and how they should be handled. The foresight that South Carolina had in the creation of its telehealth delivery mechanism should be looked at favorably.

Our Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and our Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) together with the Medical School of the University of South Carolina (MUSC) we're already partnering in the delivery of healthcare even before the pandemic.

COVID-19 dramatically illuminated the value telehealth offers to public health. For instance, the best doctors in the best nurses could be made available to areas that otherwise wouldn't have access to the best doctors in the best nurses.

In an environment of allocating scare resources there are not enough resources to have a hospital in every community. So telemedicine is a positive approach to delivering needed care where there is an absence of hospitals in rural areas.

The pandemic has also spotlighted the reality that we need to expand the building of internet broadband across the state. If broadband were available across every South Carolina county the benefits of telehealth would be more broadly available to more people.

Regional health centers are another mechanism for delivery of health services. I have actively supported funding to support programs like the Beaufort Jasper Hampton Colleton Comprehensive Healthcare System and similar entities throughout South Carolina. I have investigated these facilities and found them to be a well run family care delivery system that covers all patients from head to toe, from podiatry to heart issues, diabetes and psychiatry. I am well aware of the principle that by focusing on preventive care the overall costs of health care will come down.

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