Coding Specialist

Two McLeod Health hospitals make the Forbes' Top Hospitals 2026 List. McLEOD HEALTH DILLON 11 FEBRUARY 2026 Forbes has named McLeod Health Loris and McLeod Health Dillon to its inaugural Top Hospitals 2026 List. These two McLeod Hospitals support rural communities based on the mission and quality of McLeod Health and offer local care so patients do not have to travel for their healthcare needs. "This recognition would not have been possible without our teams who are dedicated to improving the quality of care we deliver to our patients and their families daily," said Dr. Caetie Rabon, Chief Quality Officer for McLeod Health. "We are committed to ongoing efforts toward quality improvements focusing on excellence in the delivery of healthcare to the communities we serve." Forbes developed the ratings to evaluate general acute care hospitals in the U.S. and to offer consumers unbiased information on which hospitals can offer top-notch, high-value medical services, no matter where they are in the country. The ratings were calculated with the help of healthcare measurement experts and data collected from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Provider Data Catalog. Hospitals were evaluated based on healthcare quality measures that assess patient outcomes, hospital best practices, value, and patient experience. Approximately 5,400 general acute hospitals were initially eligible for consideration. Roughly 2,600 met the inclusion criteria. Of the hospitals evaluated, 259 hospitals received an overall rating of five stars, 520 received an overall rating of four stars, and 519 received an overall rating of three stars.

Tidelands, McLeod Health comment on federal funding given toward facilities. HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) - A few hospitals along the Grand Strand and Pee Dee have received federal funding as part of a U.S. House appropriations bill passed on Tuesday. Tidelands Health received $5 million for the construction of its women's and children's center, while McLeod received $1.1 million for facility and equipment upgrades. Tidelands Health CEO Bruce Bailey said the hospital is pleased to have received the funding, as it will allow them to bring needed care to the community. Bailey said Tidelands identified better women's and children's health as a need in the community after South Carolina identified maternal-infant mortality and morbidity as a real problem in the state. Bailey said the center will include their OB practice and their pediatric practice, which will include pediatric subspecialities such as pediatric gastroenterology. The center will also offer maternal-fetal medicine specialists who provide pre, during, and postnatal care. "All the pediatric subspecialities that you'd have to go to Charleston for right now to the Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital and their clinics, I want to bring those here," Bailey said. Bailey said Tidelands feels confident its new facility, being built off Highways 31 and 707, is a good location that will provide easier access to care in the Horry County community and even more rural neighboring communities. Bailey said this greater access to care will also be helpful in relieving stress for families - and more specifically - mothers. "If you're a mom and you've got three kids and one of them needs care in Charleston, and you've got to pull that off two or three times a month or a week, that's a lot," Bailey said. "So anything we can do to bring that care here is an objective." Bailey said overall, this facility will help make it easier for the community to get the care they need. "If you think about pediatric subspeciality care, you've got an infant, a small one that's got to go to Charleston once a week, twice a week, whatever," he said. "So, we can bring that care here through this center." McLeod Health also received federal funding in the amount of $1.1 million. McLeod chief financial officer and senior vice president, Christian Soura, said the money will go towards upgrades to the fluoroscopy room and new X-Ray and CT scanners at its hospital in Dillon. Soura said fluoroscopy shows what is happening inside the body in real time, unlike an x-ray, which shows what's happening at a frozen moment in time. Soura said these imaging upgrades are vital for patient care, as better technology means higher quality care that patients will no longer have to travel for. "For us, a big part of it was about access, was about ensuring that these services are still available in Dillon," he said. "And that people aren't asked to make trips that not only require transportation resources that they may or may not have, but it can take quite a bit of time out of your day, and if that means missing work, if it means missing school, there are other real-world implications of those if this kind of care is not available." Soura said the $1.1 million in federal funding will pay for a portion of the project, and once they know when the money will become available, it will help them determine a timeline for construction. As for Tidelands Health, the women's and children's center is expected to be completed towards the end of 2028, as part of the new Tidelands Health Carolina Bays Hospital campus. Morgan Baker is a multimedia journalist at News13. She is from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and joined the News13 team in December 2025. She graduate magma cum laude from Coastal Carolina University in May 2025. Keep up with Morgan on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, You can read more of her work here.

McLeod Health Hospitals receive Zero Harm Clinical Awards. Congratulations to our teams for receiving 2025 Zero Harm Clinical Awards from the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) for our commitment to eliminating medical errors and creating a culture of high reliability throughout our facilities by implementing robust, evidence-based practices that are making a positive impact on patients and the safety and quality of care. By pursuing a standard of Zero Harm, our hospitals continue to put patient safety first in our mission to provide world-class care to the patients and communities we serve. SCHA's Zero Harm Awards were launched in 2014 as an effort to recognize South Carolina hospitals that were on the forefront of preventing medical errors, which by some estimates is the third leading cause of death in the United States. The Certified Zero Harm Awards began with a core idea - that zero harm as a goal was possible in a highly reliable system - and began rewarding hospitals who went extended stretches free of hospital-acquired infections in common categories and procedures. This statewide effort was also unique, thanks to SCHA's collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Public Health (SCDPH), which independently verified the awards. Zero Harm awards received by McLeod Health Hospitals include: McLeod Health Cheraw - Hospital Onset C. diff; Hospital Onset MRSA; CLABSI: Hospital Wide McLeod Health Clarendon - Hospital Onset MRSA; Surgical Site Infection for Abdominal Hysterectomy, Colon Surgery, Knee Replacement and Hip Replacement; CLABSI: Hospital Wide McLeod Health Dillon - Surgical Site Infection for Knee Replacement and Hip Replacement; Hospital Onset C. diff; Hospital Onset MRSA; CLABSI: Hospital Wide McLeod Health Loris - Hospital Onset C. diff; CLABSI: Medical/Surgical McLeod Health Seacoast - Surgical Site Infection for Abdominal Hysterectomy; CLABSI: Medical/Surgical Critical Care, Adult Step Down Unit McLeod Regional Medical Center - Surgical Site Infection for Hip Replacement; CLABSI: Oncology, Cardiac, Neuroscience Care Unit, Pediatrics, Neurology, Orthopedics, Card Surgery, Medical 1, CCU, TSCU, Progressive Transitional Care Unit, PICU