(Anderson, S.C. – January 1, 2025) – The first robotic standalone surgical maze procedure in the state of South Carolina was performed at AnMed in 2024. This minimally invasive procedure is used to treat atrial fibrillation and does not require opening the patient’s chest or stopping the heart, as is traditionally done for heart surgery. This results in significantly less discomfort, a quicker recovery and much lower risk than traditional heart surgery.
It not only reduces the risk of stroke, dementia and heart failure from atrial fibrillation, but it can greatly improve quality of life with respect to stamina and energy level.
The surgeon, Dr. Vasant Jayasankar, performs an array of innovative heart and lung surgery procedures at AnMed that are found nowhere else in the Upstate. He was recruited to AnMed through the health system’s partnership with MUSC, based in Charleston.
Affiliation with the state’s only comprehensive academic medical center strengthens AnMed’s capabilities.
It’s a leading example of how AnMed secures and capitalizes on partnerships to achieve its mission to provide exceptional and compassionate care.
More abilities, more services, more access, more convenience and less cost are provided thanks to AnMed’s collaborations.
Urgent care and therapy services are among new collaborations
The health system announced a partnership with MUSC Health in late 2024 to create a new clinic that enables kidney-transplant patients in the Upstate to stay closer to home for consultations and post-transplant follow-up visits.
The partners activated true virtual urgent care earlier in the year to make care accessible 24/7 with no appointment and no waiting room.
AnMed and MUSC have collaborated closely since 2014, when AnMed became the first branch campus of the medical school based in Charleston. Results have proven that the organizations are better together.
That’s why AnMed partners with numerous leading institutions and organizations.
In-person urgent care services from AnMed poised for growth in 2024 through a partnership formed with Urgent Care Group. Care was set to be delivered in early 2025 at a burgeoning network of locations across the Upstate.
Community demand for convenient care also helped spur another new partnership developed in 2024. Collaboration with Elite Integrated Therapy Centers was mounted to provide exceptional outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy throughout the area.
The partnership enables enhanced care and increased access while focus remains on patient experience and costs are controlled through synergies and scale. It's preparing to bring new services to the area, too, through combined expertise.
Educational partnerships invest in the future
AnMed’s longstanding partnership with Anderson University flourished in 2024. While the AnMed Sports Medicine Center cared for AU student-athletes and honed the health system’s abilities to serve patients young and old, clinical rotations for AU nursing students provided valuable experience even back in their classrooms through access to AnMed’s electronic health records system, an initiative made possible by collaboration with Epic Systems.
Nurse training and scholarship programs at Tri-County Technical College also provide investment in workforce development.
Seeking other innovative ways to inspire the health care leaders of tomorrow, AnMed founded Med Ed Academy in partnership with the Anderson I & II Career and Technology Center to pair high school students with professional nurses to learn firsthand about real-life health care.
Clinical partnerships also enabled better care and better life in 2024. Collaboration with Select Medical brought Regency Hospital - Upstate to Anderson to provide a critical illness recovery hospital, commonly called a long-term acute care hospital, or LTACH. It means community members no longer have to travel outside of the area to receive the exceptional specialized care they need.
Joint ventures expand access and improve care
Finding exceptional specialized care right here at home is a significant benefit brought through another partnership, too. Work with Encompass Health supported AnMed Rehabilitation Hospital in 2024 to provide inpatient rehabilitation for stroke, brain injury, hip fracture, and other complex neurological and orthopedic conditions.
Joint ventures at AnMed ENT - Anderson and Upstate Gastroenterology brought other kinds of exceptional specialized care to the local community.
AnMed’s work with the medical community enabled Piedmont Health Partners to decrease costs, improve health, enhance patient experience and improve provider satisfaction.
AnMed and Self Regional Healthcare, based in Greenwood, collaborated through Upstate Health Partners to better control rising costs and become greater assets to South Carolina.
Expertise, oversight and investment expanded access to care for rural residents through the Quick Response Vehicle program operated in partnership with Anderson County and MedShore.
That’s what comes through partnerships: better care. We are better together.
