197 patients benefited from the ION robot for lung biopsies
25.8% population growth in Piedmont since 2000
= $20,000,000
$100 million in uncompensated care
= 100,000 patients
727,052 patient encounters
One of three health systems to earn American Hospital Association Equity of Care Award
= 500 virtual urgent care visits
2,625 virtual urgent care visits through MUSC partnership
Exceptional health care for a growing community
In 2024, AnMed had the great privilege of providing care for thousands of our friends and neighbors. It’s a profound honor to be trusted with the wellbeing of so many and a responsibility that fuels our mission to provide exceptional and compassionate care to all we serve.
In the five years since I came to Anderson, we’ve seen remarkable growth across our service area as people and businesses continue to move into the community. As you’ll read in these pages of our 2024 Annual Report, we have made significant investments to improve access to care in areas where growth has created new needs.
We broke ground on a $50 million campus in Piedmont to bring services to one of the fastestgrowing parts of the Upstate. When we open our doors in the spring of 2025, emergency care, imaging, lab, physical therapy and physician care will be more readily available to thousands of residents living from Powdersville to Williamston.
We developed and expanded relationships with innovative organizations that share our values and commitment to excellence. New partnerships with MUSC, Anderson University, Select Medical and Elite Integrated Therapy have strengthened our capabilities and brought services closer to home.
Just as important as the steps we’ve taken to grow and expand health care is the spirit of compassion and human kindness infused in our work. Our teammates continue to inspire me with the countless ways they touch and improve lives each day, regardless of their role.
As we look back on the accomplishments of 2024, our commitment to Anderson County, Pickens County, Oconee County and the surrounding community has never been stronger. And while we celebrate the successes of the past year, we look forward to even greater things to come. Because better truly starts with each one of us.
William Kenley Chief Executive Officer
Providing exceptional, compassionate care is a ‘privilege’
New ventures in urgent care, therapy and kidneytransplant support were announced in 2024. Another new practice opened, in pediatrics.
New services were added, and history was made with the state’s first robotic standalone surgical maze procedure to treat atrial fibrillation.
Now the 116-year-old independent, not-for-profit health system is poised for an even brighter 2025, and Dr. Friendly will play a part that epitomizes AnMed’s progress.
said. “I enjoy the challenge that medicine provides, the teamwork that’s required and the ability to use a unique skillset to give back to humanity in a positive way.
“It is such a privilege to be a part of such a compassionate and trusted profession.”
The thing I enjoy most about my job is the opportunity to form long-lasting relationships with patients as we work together to improve their health and lives.
“The thing I enjoy most about my job is the opportunity to form long-lasting relationships with patients as we work together to improve their health and lives,” Dr. Friendly
Compassionate care is at the center of AnMed’s values.
Teammates go above and beyond in the care provided to patients
That’s why teammates went above and beyond what patients expected in 2024 to help them reach loved ones in times of need.
That’s why Jennifer Callaham retrieved a wheelchair and pushed a patient across parking lots and a road to help the man reach the right office.
That’s why Tommy Brister left his 12-hour shift and drove to a nursing home to retrieve hearing aids for a patient who’d left them behind.
That’s why Casey Singleton and Marcia Wells gave up their lunch break to accommodate a man on crutches who arrived for an appointment two hours late.
That’s why Allison McClellan personally gathered muchneeded medical equipment for a patient who was left vulnerable by a power outage.
That’s why Christie Heaton and Daphne Simpson got involved locally and through a corporate office to have a nursing home’s policy changed. That meant a patient could use an important piece of equipment in a home he didn’t want to be forced to leave.
The man and nursing home were grateful that Heaton and Simpson cared.
We remain grateful for all our teammates’ compassion.
Compassion helps make the difference in the care provided by AnMed teammates.
CLINICAL EXCELLENCE
Partnerships prove that we are indeed better together
The first robotic standalone surgical maze procedure in the state of South Carolina was performed at AnMed in 2024. This minimally invasive procedure is used to treat atrial fibrillation and does not require opening the patient’s chest or stopping the heart, as is traditionally done for heart surgery. This results in significantly less discomfort, a quicker recovery and much lower risk than traditional heart surgery.
It not only reduces the risk of stroke, dementia and heart failure from atrial fibrillation, but it can greatly improve quality of life with respect to stamina and energy level.
The surgeon, Dr. Vasant Jayasankar, performs an array
of innovative heart and lung surgery procedures at AnMed that are found nowhere else in the Upstate. He was recruited to AnMed through the health system’s partnership with MUSC, based in Charleston.
Affiliation with the state’s only comprehensive academic medical center strengthens AnMed’s capabilities.
It’s a leading example of how AnMed secures and capitalizes on partnerships to achieve its mission to provide exceptional and compassionate care.
More abilities, more services, more access, more convenience and less cost are provided thanks to AnMed’s collaborations.
Urgent care and therapy add new collaborations
The health system announced a partnership with MUSC Health in late 2024 to create a new clinic that enables kidney-transplant patients in the Upstate to stay closer to home for consultations and post-transplant follow-up visits.
The partners activated true virtual urgent care earlier in the year to make care accessible 24/7 with no appointment and no waiting room.
AnMed and MUSC have collaborated closely since 2014, when AnMed became the first branch campus of the medical school based in Charleston. Results have proven that the organizations are better together.
That’s why AnMed partners with numerous leading institutions and organizations.
In-person urgent care services from AnMed poised for growth in 2024 through a partnership formed with Urgent
Care Group. Care was set to be delivered in early 2025 at a burgeoning network of locations across the Upstate.
Community demand for convenient care also helped spur another new partnership developed in 2024. Collaboration with Elite Integrated Therapy Centers was mounted to provide exceptional outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy throughout the area.
The partnership enables enhanced care and increased access while focus remains on patient experience and costs are controlled through synergies and scale. It’s preparing to bring new services to the area, too, through combined expertise.
Educational partnerships invest in the future
AnMed’s longstanding partnership with Anderson University flourished in 2024. While the AnMed Sports Medicine Center cared for AU student-athletes and honed the health system’s abilities to serve patients young and old, clinical rotations for AU nursing students provided valuable experience even back in their classrooms through access to AnMed’s electronic health records system, an initiative made possible by collaboration with Epic Systems.
Nurse training and scholarship programs at Tri-County Technical College also provide investment in workforce development.
Seeking other innovative ways to inspire the health care leaders of tomorrow, AnMed founded Med Ed Academy in partnership with the Anderson I & II Career and Technology Center to pair high school students with professional nurses to learn firsthand about real-life health care.
Clinical partnerships also enabled better care and better life in 2024. Collaboration with Select Medical brought Regency Hospital - Upstate to Anderson to provide a critical illness recovery hospital, commonly called a longterm acute care hospital, or LTACH. It means community members no longer have to travel outside of the area to receive the exceptional specialized care they need.
Joint ventures expand access and improve care for the community
Finding exceptional specialized care right here at home is a significant benefit brought through another partnership, too. Work with Encompass Health supported AnMed Rehabilitation Hospital in 2024 to provide inpatient rehabilitation for stroke, brain injury, hip fracture, and other complex neurological and orthopedic conditions.
Joint ventures at AnMed ENT - Anderson and Upstate Gastroenterology brought other kinds of exceptional specialized care to the local community.
AnMed’s work with the medical community enabled Piedmont Health Partners to decrease costs, improve health, enhance patient experience and improve provider satisfaction.
AnMed and Self Regional Healthcare, based in Greenwood, collaborated through Upstate Health Partners to better control rising costs and become greater assets to South Carolina.
Expertise, oversight and investment expanded access to care for rural residents through the Quick Response Vehicle program operated in partnership with Anderson County and MedShore.
That’s what comes through partnerships: better care. We are better together.
AnMed’s partnership with Anderson University has expanded as the school has begun competition in college football.
System overview
At a glance
• Independent, not-for-profit health care system serving South Carolina and Georgia
• Founded in 1908 and named among nation’s “Great Community Hospitals” by Becker’s Hospital Review
• Among only three systems in the U.S. to win the 2024 Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award from the American Hospital Association
Key tenets
AnMed is dedicated to providing the highest quality care, delivered with compassion and respect.
Our culture is a collection of our common beliefs, values and attitudes. By making a commitment to live this culture every day, we’re ensuring that better starts with each one of us.
Mission
To provide exceptional and compassionate care to all we serve
Vision
To work together for better health and a better life
Values
• Accountability
• Integrity
• Collaboration
• Compassion
• Innovation
Facilities
AnMed is licensed for 648 beds and anchored by AnMed Medical Center, a 495-bed acute-care hospital that’s earned the prestigious Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The system includes:
• specialty inpatient and outpatient centers
• a cancer center
• heart and vascular center
• maternity center
• AnMed North Campus
• AnMed Rehabilitation Hospital
• AnMed Cannon in Pickens
The Rehabilitation Hospital is licensed for 60 beds, Cannon 55, the North Campus 38. Also included in the system in 2025 are more than 60 physician practices and locations from Easley, South Carolina, to Hartwell, Georgia.
Services
Major services include:
• cardiology
• oncology
• orthopedics
• maternity
• general surgery
• primary care
• specialty care
• urgent care
A variety of related diagnostic and surgical services, home health services and virtual care are available, too.
Honors
Honors in 2024 for the AnMed system, named among the nation’s “Great Community Hospitals” by Becker’s Hospital Review in 2023, include:
• Recognition in the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet program, a distinction held since 2012
• DNV Healthcare full accreditation
• Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award from the American Hospital Association
• Vince Ford Health Equity Award from the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina
• Zero Harm, Zero Disparities, Zero Suicide and Zero Workplace Violence awards from the South Carolina Hospital Association
• “A” Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group
Outreach
AnMed provides millions of dollars’ worth of uncompensated care to deliver better health and better lives to residents in need throughout the region. Special clinical, educational and community efforts further benefit underserved people. Support for costfree health care, free transportation, assistance with medical expenses, Safe Kids programs, elder care and cancer care is provided. Through the generosity of supporters and donors, the AnMed Foundation has received more than $20 million since 2014 to meet the greatest health care needs of the community.