Year after merger, hospital upswing

A year after the Greenville Hospital System merger, a local panel called the Oconee Medical Holdings Board of Directors remains the last vestige of official community involvement at Oconee Memorial Hospital.  Last night that board, chaired by Seneca’s Cecil Turner, held its first meeting after the one-year merger anniversary.  Turner and his colleagues heard an upbeat picture from Hunter Kome, the president of the Oconee Medical Campus.  Patient volumes are up, so is the financial bottom line.  So are the numbers of employees who are there to care for the sick.  In one year along, Kome said, the higher numbers of patients allowed Oconee Memorial to hire an additional 230 employees.  Traditionally, the local hospital has been one of Oconee’s largest employers.