A new Lancaster County medical residency program aims to boost area healthcare
MUSC Health, the healthcare system that’s also building a hospital in Indian Land, will start a new residency program next month in Lancaster aimed at improving medical services in rural areas.
Lancaster Medical Center will have eight internal medicine resident physicians in its first class. The hospital’s parent company received $5.8 million from this year’s state budget for a graduate medical education program.
A family medicine residency program is expected to start next year.
The Medical University of South Carolina operates the main hospitals in Lancaster and Chester counties. Lancaster Medical Center and Chester Medical Center combine for almost 300 beds.
The academic healthcare group also has a more than $200 million project in Indian Land that will add a hospital in 2027 and medical office building next year off U.S. 521, Charlotte Highway.
The internal medicine residencies will last three years. Physicians will live in and provide medical care for the area as they learn, growing medical care for more rural areas of southern Lancaster County.
In announcing the new residency program, S.C. Rep. Brandon Newton noted it received the largest single state appropriation for a Lancaster County entity. The Republican lawmaker represents the western parts of Lancaster and Kershaw counties, south of the Indian Land panhandle.
“It represents a major investment in the future of our community and in the long-term health of our region,” Newton said.
The family medicine residency program to follow will have the same number of physicians, according to MUSC Health.
About MUSC Health
Company health services in the region have grown in recent years, in part to serve the new Indian Land hospital.
MUSC Health has primary care, physical therapy and endocrinology offices in the panhandle area. The medical office building planned beside the new hospital will add other specialties.
Downtown Lancaster now has six MUSC-affiliated locations, and there’s another just north of that area along U.S. 521. Chester has two sites, with others in Richburg and Great Falls to serve Chester County.
Even among all the recent additions, new residency programs are significant, Lancaster Medical Center CEO J. Scott Broome said in Tuesday’s announcement.
“This is one of the most important efforts we’ve undertaken because it forms the foundation for everything else,” Broome said. “When you have strong primary care, everything works better, from specialty services to advanced care.”
The Charleston-based hospital group is South Carolina’s only comprehensive academic health system.
MUSC Health trains more than 950 residents and fellows each year, in addition to the 3,100 students instructed across six colleges. MUSC Health has 31,000 employees and has an annual operating budget of $7.1 billion.
