Tidelands Health receives $500K grant to help uninsured, underinsured adults

GEORGETOWN, S.C. (WBTW) – Tidelands Health recently received a $500,000 grant from The Duke Endowment to help the hospital improve access to healthcare for uninsured and underinsured adults.

The funds will support Tidelands' Community Care Network, which removes barriers people in need of medical care and are a renewal of a grant first given to Tidelands in 2012.

"This grant helps us be able to get people into both primary and specialty care, as well as work to remove barriers to care that they might experience, like transportation, or child care, or food insecurity, and housing stability to help make sure that they have what they need to be successful and live better and healthier lives overall," Kelly Thompkins, senior director for community health.

The network has already helped nearly 9,000 people.

Thompkins also said the grant gives uninsured and underinsured patients access to affordable medication.

The grant helps Tidelands ensure it has the resources, staffing, and connections it needs to support patients in need.

The Community Care Network has more than 40 partners that help Tidelands give patients referrals for medical care, housing, and more.

"If we need transportation to and from appointments, we can help pay for that through these grants," Thompkins said. "We can also make sure that we have people that are able to coordinate care with the individuals, and we also have people who are able to go with them if English isn't their first language, to help translate, to make sure that those barriers don't exist as well."

Not only can Tidelands patients receive care from physicians, but they can also receive clinical education from nurses, so they know how to manage their conditions on a daily basis — a service made possible thanks to the grant.

"We've seen people who have gone from anywhere to having not seen a doctor in the last 15 years to being able to see a doctor and having their diabetes more well-controlled," Thompkins said. "We've seen people who've had high blood pressure their whole lives who've gone off their blood pressure medication."

Thompkins said Tidelands Health staff are grateful to The Duke Endowment for the grant, and they are looking forward to giving more life-saving resources to their communities.

"At Tidelands, our mission is to help people live better lives through better health, and this is just one of the ways we're able to help give back to our community," she said. "As a community hospital and system, we really want to make sure that we are working for the community and with the community. So, having community partners at our beck and call, and being able to work with them, and them work with us, really helps us be able to create that network."

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Skylar Musick is a multimedia journalist at News13. Skylar is originally from Long Island, New York. She joined the News13 team in June 2024 after graduating from Villanova University in May 2024. Follow Skylar on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook , or Instagram , and read more of her work here .