Hospital embarks onn study to expand emergency department

Starting today representatives of a company that specializes in studying the need to expand hospital emergency services will visit Oconee Memorial Hospital in a fact-finding venture.  Hunter Kome, president of the Oconee Medical Campus of GHS, announced last night that the company will make several visits to the Oconee hospital as it conducts a feasibility student.  That study is important, Kome stressed, because it’ll be used to base a request of Oconee’s parent company, Greenville Health System, to fund expansion of the Oconee emergency department.  Last year, according to Kome, the local emergency department accommodated 42 thousand patient visits—many more than the facility was designed for.  The Oconee hospital and its Clemson service area have two representatives who sit on the overall parent board that governs GHS hospitals:  businessman Rick Phillips and retired Clemson President James Barker.