Lovelace Family Medicine, PA was established in July 1988 by Dr. Oscar Lovelace, Jr. in honor of his grandfather, Drury Lovelace, a Prosperity dairy farmer. The office is located in the town of Prosperity, SC (population 1,000) in Newberry County (population 30,000) just off I-26, 30 miles west of Columbia, and 6 miles from Lake Murray. Since we opened our doors, our focus has been on providing comprehensive, preventative health care by emphasizing the physical, mental, and spiritual health of our patients.
Beginning in 1988, our providers have been honored to hold Clinical Assistant Professorships with the MUSC Department of Family Medicine, the University of Virginia Department of Family Medicine, and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. This has given us the opportunity to host students from the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of Virginia, the University of South Carolina, Emory University, and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine as they complete family or rural medicine rotations. We have also been able to host residents from MUSC, Richland Family Practice, and Greenwood Family Medicine as they complete their residency training. In addition to training future doctors, it has been our pleasure to host a variety nurse practitioner students, physician’s assistant students, and nursing students as they pursue their degrees.
In August of 1998, we became one of the first practices in South Carolina to take the initiative to transform from a paper medical record system to an electronic one. All patient records are now kept on our computers which has allowed us to eliminate office problems such as lost charts and misplaced notes and has improved our efficiency so that we are able to see patients and respond to emergencies more quickly. Now, when our patients speak to the provider on call,that doctor is able to open the patient’s chart from their computer at home and provide the patient with accurate, real-time medical advice.
In 2001, Dr. William Dixon joined Lovelace Family Medicine after completing his residency in family medicine at the Hamot Family Practice in Erie, PA and fellowship in obstetrics at the Central Texas Medicine Foundation. The next year, another doctor from the Hamot Family Practice Residency Program, Dr. Lisa Heichberger, joined us as well following the completion of her fellowship in Tacoma, WA. In 2002 we also added Rhonda Cook, FNP to our group of providers. Rhonda came to us having spent time as a nurse in coronary and intensive care units as well as in family practice and obtained her MSN from USC.
Our move to an electronic records system has also given us the opportunity to use advanced data analysis to analyze our performance as a practice. Through a partnership with PPRNET, a Charleston, SC based research group, we are able to evaluate in which areas of patient care we are already doing well and in which we have room to improve and, based upon this data, to make adjustments to continue providing the highest quality care possible to our patients. Since we joined PPRNET in 2003 we have been recognized numerous times as a Best Practice and High Performance Practice at the annual PPRNET meeting in Charleston.
In 2008 and 2009 we were lucky to add two more nurse practitioners to our practice. First, in 2008, Amanda Haltiwanger joined us after completing her MSN at MUSC. Amanda previously worked in emergency care as a nurse and was already familiar with the office from the time she spent with us as one of our nurse practitioner students. One year later, in 2009, Lindsay Piersol came to us after completing her MSN at Clemson University. Lindsay has previous experience in nephrology as a nurse practitioner and oncology as a nurse.
In 2012, Dr. Lovelace began teaching a weekly weight loss class to our qualifying Medicare patients. This class focuses on providing advice on diet and exercise geared specifically towards our Medicare patients to make sure that these are the kinds of adjustments practical for them to make in their lives. As one of the first classes of its kind, we have had an incredible amount of success with the patients who have attended.
2013 has been a very important year for us as we were were able to celebrate our 25th anniversary with a community day featuring rides, a band, other fun activities at our office in Prosperity. We are truly blessed to have been able to serve this community for so long.
Currently, approximately 6,600 patients receive their care at the office and even though we have developed a reputation for being Newberry’s most progressive, we are still a rural doctor’s office with a genuine concern for our patients and community. If you think you have an interest in becoming a patient, please feel free to call or stop by and learn more about what we can do for you as your personal doctor. Our doors are always open to everyone.
