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ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WIS) - The University of South Carolina’s (USC) Brain Health Network is expanding its effort to combat healthcare deserts across the Midlands with a new clinic in Orangeburg designed to cut down wait times for patients seeking cognitive health care. USC is partnering with Hope Health to launch the new brain health clinic inside Hope Health’s Orangeburg facility. The clinic aims to reduce evaluation wait times from several months to four to five weeks. “The evaluation with a specialist it would take several months, not uncommonly nine months, sometimes a year, a year and a half,” said Dr. Leonardo Bonilha. “What we did was stitch things together so that somebody could be evaluated faster. They are contacted sooner, and the process shortens that long, many-month time span to four to five weeks.” Orangeburg ranks eighth in the nation for Alzheimer’s prevalence. The new clinic is the seventh in the Midlands and will put community health workers and brain health specialists within reach for more families. “I don’t know if there’s a family in Orangeburg that hasn’t experienced dementia or Alzheimer’s in their families,” said Carl Humphries of Hope Health. “We all know what that’s like to deal with, and the exciting part about this project is that we can take our experts at USC and then our own experts at Hope Health and delivering the best healthcare to this community.” The clinic is currently in the pilot phase, focusing on Hope Health patients. Officials say they plan to expand to the larger Orangeburg community by early 2026. For Mara Sholette, who watched her grandfather struggle with dementia, the new clinic represents hope for other families facing similar challenges. She said her family waited months for answers and help before her grandfather died within a year of his diagnosis. “He wasn’t able to get adequate help for his dementia,” she said. “I think if this clinic had been available to him and he was in Orangeburg, we might have had him a little while longer.” Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with WIS. For more free content like this, subscribe to our email newsletter, and download our apps. Have feedback that can help us improve? Click here.
