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April is Community College Month

This is the fifth essay in a six-part series celebrating National Community College Month.

TCL Keeps Our Community Healthy 

If you have had an encounter with Beaufort Memorial, it is highly likely a graduate of the Technical College of the Lowcountry has helped you. It is estimated that at least 50 percent of the more than 1,300 current hospital employees have received some or all of their education through TCL or community colleges like it, and that speaks volumes about the value of TCL to the health of our community.

As a CEO charged with managing a community hospital amidst an ever-changing healthcare landscape, I know that the key to our success is a highly skilled and committed workforce. Hospitals like ours rely heavily on close partnerships with colleges and universities to educate future generations of caregivers, techs and more. In turn, those institutions rely on us to provide clinical training, internships and, occasionally, faculty members to support their students—our future employees.

From phlebotomists and certified nursing assistants to lab technicians and registered nurses, hundreds of Beaufort Memorial employees have received the education, training and skills they need to care for our patients through our community’s college. Many of them have carried on a tradition of healthcare, following parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings through TCL’s numerous health-related programs with a goal of caring for their own, right here at home.

Community colleges like TCL play a vital role in the health and well-being of local residents, local businesses and the local economy as a whole. It is not possible to overstate the importance of this symbiotic relationship, nor its contribution to the growth of Beaufort Memorial both now and in the future.

For nearly 75 years, Beaufort Memorial has served residents in Beaufort and surrounding counties by pursing our mission to deliver superior healthcare services to our patients and improve the health of our community. Moreover, for many of those years the faculty, staff and students of TCL have made that mission possible.

Sincerely,

Russell Baxley, MHA
Beaufort Memorial President & CEO

Russell Baxley joined Beaufort Memorial Hospital as President & Chief Executive Officer in 2016.   A Johnsonville, S.C. native, Mr. Baxley received his Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Clemson University and his Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of South Carolina. He and his wife, Stephanie, live in Beaufort.