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John Edward Harter Nursing Center

The facility is staffed with licensed nurses 24 hour per day and all residents are under the care of a physician medical director. Residents have access to numerous recreational and rehabilitative activities led by a staff of certified nursing assistants, activities professionals and numerous volunteers and community groups. Social Services personnel attend to the residents social and welfare needs.
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Picture of a female sitting at a table, looking at news on an Ipad.
Picture of a female sitting at a table, looking at news on an Ipad.

Allendale County Hospital News


Recent News


Allendale County Hospital Awarded 2022 Provider of the Year

The South Carolina Office of Rural Health (SCORH) honored six rural healthcare providers and community members at its 25th Annual Rural Health Conference on Wednesday.

"Each year, our office honors those in our rural communities who have shown excellence in their work to make their communities healthier, either through direct healthcare delivery, or efforts to make their communities stronger and more resilient," said Graham Adams, CEO of SCORH. "As a token of our appreciation, we present a piece of artwork each year, made by an artist in a rural community. This year, we commissioned Winnsboro artist Christy Buchanan to create these awards."

The Rural Health Provider of the Year Award is presented to a provider of rural health services where the health status of a rural community was significantly enhanced. This year's award goes to Allendale County Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital and one of the only remaining independent hospitals in the state.


Allendale County Hospital named top critical access hospital

Allendale County Hospital in Fairfax, SC was recently named one of the top 20 critical access hospitals (CAHs) for quality in the country.
The top 20 CAHs, including Allendale County Hospital, scored best among CAHs as determined by the Chartis Center for Rural Health for quality. The rankings were recently announced by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). An awards ceremony will be held during NRHA's Critical Access Hospital Conference in September in Kansas City, Mo.

The top 20 CAHs have achieved success in overall performance based on a composite rating from eight indices of strength: inpatient market share, outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge, and financial efficiency. This group was selected from the Chartis Center for Rural Health's 2021 top 100 CAH list, which was released earlier this year.

The top 20 CAH best practice recipients have achieved success in one of two key areas of performance:
Quality index: A rating of hospital performance based on the percentile rank across rural-relevant process of care measures.
Patient perspective index: A rating of hospital performance based on the percentile rank across all 10 HCAHPS domains.
"Allendale County Hospital is proud of the efforts of the physicians, providers, nurses and all staff who have contributed to our hospital achieving this designation," says Lari Gooding, CEO. "It is a testament not only to the skills of the staff here in Fairfax, but also their dedication to the patients and community. Our results as a top hospital for quality means our community can count on us to deliver the services they need now and in the future."



Lari Gooding, CEO, Allendale County Hospital Recognized as South Carolina's "Community Star" in Conjunction with National Rural Health Day 2019

Fairfax, SC - On the third Thursday of November every year, the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH), the member organization for each of the 50 State Offices of Rural Health (SORH), leads National Rural Health Day (NRHD), an annual day of recognition, shining a light on those who serve the vital health needs of the estimated 57 million people living in rural America.

SORHs, including the SC Office of Rural Health, provide support to rural hospitals, clinics, and first responders in several ways including technical assistance, funding that supports workforce development, population health management, quality improvement initiatives, and more.
In 2015, NOSORH invited its members to nominate hospital and emergency first responder teams, community health, and volunteer service heroes on the front lines of rural health who were making a positive impact on rural lives. Soon after the stories started coming, the book of Community Stars has been published on NRHD.

Lari Gooding was nominated and his story was selected to appear in the 2019 edition that will be available on the https://www.PowerofRural.org website, the official hub for NRHD and the Power of Rural movement, beginning November 21, 2019. For the first time since its inception, a limited number of Community Star books will also be available for purchase.

Allendale County Hospital is excited that it's CEO was selected to represent South Carolina as the states Community Star. This national recognition is a tribute to all Allendale County Hospital employees that work so hard to care for the community. Mr. Gooding will join the SC Office of Rural Health in Orangeburg, SC on November 21 to celebrate National Rural Health Day and pay tribute to all of those that work so hard in the rural communities.

Rural communities, health organizations, schools are all invited to participate in NRHD. Free tools, ideas and details about NRHD events occurring across the United States are also available on PowerofRural.org.

For more information on National Rural Health Day activities in South Carolina visit www.scorh.net.

Allendale County Hospital is Online


Allendale County Hospital has recently developed a web site and is providing many sources for health information and programming. As you can see this is something that will be very useful to our patients, their families and those who may want to know what kinds of services or facilities we have. There are also many other features we hope you will explore. You can look up medications in the drug search, find interesting health information or ask the FastNurse Research Correspondent a question and get a reply to your own personal question. This is a valuable resource and we hope that you will take full advantage of it.

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