6/11/09
Need a doc? DuBose Center is ready to serve
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

Staff at the new Dr. J. Daulton DuBose Medical Center in Summerton has been seeing patients for about three weeks now. The clinic offers a full range of medical services. Pictured are Dr. Woody Dixon; Debra Jackson, medical assistant; Avril Dymond, receptionist; Debbie Williams, nurse and Elizabeth Rogan, office manager. Not pictured are Physician Assistant Katherine Coffey; Shawanda Oliver, lab technician; and Rochelle Gardner, receptionist.

As you exit I-95 at the 108 Exit, you will see a shiny red roof with a stylish cupola to your right.

That’s the Dr. J. Daulton DuBose Medical Center, Clarendon Health System’s newest provider.

“Access to health care is so important to the residents of Summerton,” said Clarendon Health System CEO Ed Frye. “We have operated a clinic in Turbeville for over 10 years and it was time to developed a presence in Summerton, especially with all the new projects planned for the region.”

The Cypress Foundation of Clarendon Memorial Hospital, the charitable arm of the Clarendon Health System, spearheaded the clinic project and was its largest donor with a $330,000 gift to CHS.

Ground was broken for the clinic on Nov. 14, 2008, as officials from the Foundation, the hospital and the town of Summerton celebrated the groundbreaking of the Dr. J. Daulton DuBose Medical Clinic, located just off Buff Boulevard in Summerton. The clinic saw its first patient on May 15.

The clinic will bear the name of Dr. DuBose in recognition of the generous donation of land for the clinic by his and the Ken Wells families.

“Dr. DuBose was part of an investment group that made a major contribution toward the acquisition of the land,” Frye noted.

“The medical needs of this community must be met,” said Cypress Foundation Chairman Cleve Dowell at the November groundbreaking. “A few years ago there were three healthcare providers in Summerton. All were successful. Today there is only one, and yet the population has increased and is predicted to grow. The delivery of medical services creates local opportunities for employment that cannot be outsourced overseas. This clinic will help keep those jobs and revenue in Clarendon County.”

The Foundation also spearheaded the local fund-raising effort for the Clinic.

The clinic represents a $1.6 million investment in the Summerton area.

“This facility caused a major expansion of the town of Summerton’s wastewater treatment facility and will help Summerton to continue to grow,” Frye added.

The clinic is currently served by eight employees, including a physician, Dr. Woody Dixon of St. Matthews and Katherine Coffey, a physician’s assistant.

Dixon is an internist and has been in practice since 1998. A native of Columbia he is married and has two children, 16 and 21.

Medicine is actually Dixon’s second career – he was in the construction business for many years before deciding to return to school.

“I was at a crossroad in my life and not happy with what I was doing,” he explained. “So, at 36, I went to Francis Marion University and finished my degree in biology, while still working in the construction business. After I finished my bachelor’s degree, I went to medical school at St. Georges School of Medicine in Grenada.”

Dixon has completed residencies in both family medicine and internal medicine. Prior to joining the Summerton Clinic he worked as a traveling doctor at First Choice Health Care and Doctors Care center around the Pee Dee.

Joining Dixon will be Katherine Coffey a recent newcomer to Clarendon County. She was married to Manning attorney Joe Coffey last December.

Katherine Coffey

Coffey is a graduate of Wofford College where she studied biology and Spanish. She then attended the Medical University of South Carolina where she earned her master’s degree as a physician assistant.

Both providers recognize that poverty plays a large part of rural health care.

“Rural areas traditionally have a lack of specialized services and economic resources make it difficult for patients to travel to where the specialists are,” Dixon said.

While the DuBose and Wells families made the land acquisition possible, several other sources contributed to the project.

“In addition to the major gift from the Cypress Foundation, grants for the water and sewer infrastructure came from Santee Electric and the S.C. Budget and Control Board,” said Foundation Director Scherrie Cogdill. “Additional funds were received from the Health and Human Services Rural Grants Program to assist with physician recruitment and equipment purchases.”

While the DuBose Clinic has been in operation for about three weeks and has already amassed a patient roster of about 100 patients, the Clinic will celebrate its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and business after hours social at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30. The community is invited to celebrate this momentous occasion.

The Dr. J. Daulton DuBose Clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday and they do not close for lunch. New patients and walk-ins are welcome.

To schedule an appointment or for a tour of the facilities, call 488-9355 (WELL).