(9/08/11) – On August 30, 2011, First Citizens presented the McLeod Health Foundation and McLeod Medical Center Dillon with a gift of $20,000 for the Foundation’s "One Vision, One Future" campaign to improve and enhance the McLeod Medical Center Dillon Emergency Department.

The renovation and construction project included a 9,365 square feet expansion to the Emergency Department. The department now offers 18 new exam and treatment rooms, including designated triage and trauma rooms, a decontamination area, and staff support spaces. A new entrance for walk-in patients also keeps them separate from those arriving by ambulance.

In addition, a new family waiting area is available for improved privacy and safety, and a dedicated site for a helicopter pad allows transporting of trauma patients. Existing Emergency Department exam rooms and support areas have also been renovated to flow into the new construction.

The Emergency Department at McLeod Medical Center Dillon treated more than 26,000 patients during this past year, up from 24,000 treated in 2006. Based on historical data, the volume is projected to continue to grow at a rate of 2.2 percent each year for the next ten years. These numbers demonstrated that an expansion of the Emergency Department was greatly needed to enable the medical teams to care for the increase in patients in this part of the region.

Jill Bramblett, Executive Director of the McLeod Health Foundation, said, "The power of giving to those in need of emergency care in Dillon County has been made possible by McLeod Foundation community and corporate donors like First Citizens who made the expansion of emergency services a reality."