= 50 patients
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
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
One of his favorite books as a child was a compilation of anatomy wall charts. He told his father that one day he’d memorize every word on the pages.
That was an early indication of the future that laid ahead of Dr. Chris Friendly.
Years later, when he was a freshman in college, he spent considerable time caring for his ailing grandmother, and it further fueled his passion for health care. He studied medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina and went on to become a family medicine resident at AnMed.
Now, as he looks to completion of his residency in the summer of 2025, he knows what will come next. He’ll practice at the new AnMed Piedmont campus at AnMed Primary Care - Piedmont.
His lifelong investments in education will begin to pay off for patients at the same time AnMed’s investment in northeastern Anderson County begins to pay off for the growing community.
The $50 million campus is emblematic of growth happening throughout the AnMed system.
Bolstered by increased commitment and federal appropriations, AnMed Piedmont saw its walls erected in the summer of 2024, and construction remained on track for an opening in the first half of 2025.
The ambulatory campus at the corner of state Highway 86 and Old Williamston Road just off Interstate 85 Exit 35 will have two floors for patient care. Included will be an emergency department, primary care and specialty care, physical therapy, laboratory and imaging services, EMS and sheriff’s office substations, and more.
“Thanks to the tireless efforts and commitments of our team, we’re growing and directing assets where the community needs them, and AnMed Piedmont is a perfect example of our investments,” said AnMed CEO William Kenley. “We’re applying every resource to deliver the
exceptional, compassionate care that our community needs and deserves.”
More services, more access, more convenience and more abilities are developed with every investment from AnMed.
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
A young patient in labor was taken to the AnMed North Campus in 2024 because she mistakenly believed that was still the location of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She was already struggling with contractions.
When Dr. Michelle Tucker was alerted to the situation, she ran to assist.
The patient and her mother were parked outside of a North Campus entrance. The patient desperately wanted to
push with her contractions, but Dr. Tucker and her team kept the patient calm. They provided privacy and support while waiting for an ambulance to take the patient to the Maternity Center down the road at AnMed Medical Center.
Dr. Tucker even rode with the patient in the ambulance to best soothe and care for the patient and her coming baby.
That’s the kind of compassion that shines through our care.
It’s what led Audrey Wilson to make phone call after phone call during and after business hours to secure insurance coverage for a patient’s life-saving surgery.
It’s what led Sonja Abramovitz to deliver a head cover and false eyelashes to a cancer patient who was distressed about removing her wig for a procedure.
It’s what drove our efforts to advance equity of care for all patients with years of initiatives in the public view and behind the scenes. For our work, we were named among only three health systems in the U.S. as winners of the 2024 Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award from the American Hospital Association.
We don’t readily extend deep compassion for such awards. We don’t do it because it’s part of a business model or to gain attention. We do it because that’s how we feel and that’s who we are.
That’s why the AnMed Foundation has donated millions of dollars to help meet the greatest health care needs of the community.
That’s why we’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, facilities, training and analysis to enhance the security of patients, visitors and teammates.
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.
When a young, autistic, non-verbal girl arrived at AnMed with a serious illness recently, she was in great need. Pain and fever were apparent though she could not tell anyone what was wrong with her.
She was initially diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease, a common illness in children caused by coxsackievirus, but investigation continued as the child’s condition failed to improve.
Paige Fuhrer and Lori White, teammates in AnMed’s laboratory services department, wasted no time nor expertise in studying a blood culture from the child. They recognized something very slightly unusual that led to
more study and more work – and ultimately a rare find often missed by laboratories around the world.
With great diligence, the help of a Bruker mass spectrometry device and collaboration with Dr. Kristopher Gross, a family medicine resident, they identified what was wreaking havoc: streptobacillus moniliformis, otherwise known as rat-bite fever.
The team’s skill and commitment to medical excellence set the girl to make a full recovery.
Fuhrer and White were named AnMed’s Stars of the Year as honors for clinical excellence were distributed throughout the health system.
AnMed earned an “A” Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit watchdog organization, as well as 11 Certified Zero Harm Awards from the South Carolina Hospital Association in 2024.
The health system won five quality achievement awards from the American Heart Association’s “Get with the Guidelines” program in 2024.
AnMed’s mammography team achieved accreditations in mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, breast
ultrasound and MRI to become an ACR Designated Comprehensive Breast Imaging Center of Excellence.
Other reaccreditations, quality certifications and independent evaluations came throughout 2024 as AnMed was among only 604 health systems in the nation to boast recognition in the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet program, the highest national honor for professional nursing.
By the year’s halfway point, AnMed surpassed 100 patients served with the Ion endoluminal system, Intuitive’s robotic-assisted platform for minimally invasive biopsy in the lung. Faster and more accurate diagnoses of lung cancer even for formerly very-difficult-to-reach areas have come thanks to the exceptionally precise tool.
Use of the new PulseSelect Pulsed Field Ablation System from Medtronic began early in 2024. Much quicker, safer and more effective treatment of atrial fibrillation has come thanks to the revolutionary tool.
And another new treatment for atrial fibrillation also began in 2024 as the first robotic standalone surgical maze procedure in the state of South Carolina was performed at AnMed. The 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.
The procedure 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.
It adds to AnMed’s catalog of the most advanced heart treatments in Upstate South Carolina. It’s among an array of innovative procedures that are among options for treatment and services found nowhere else in the Upstate.
More progressive ventures and initiatives are in the works for the months to come.
AnMed offers an array of innovative procedures and treatments designed to bring more options to patients across the Upstate.
The robotic standalone surgical maze 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Our service is caring for the community, indeed, and that doesn’t mean only in the realm of medical expertise. Our collective organization and our 3,600 team members support efforts that make Upstate South Carolina and northeast Georgia a better place to live as a matter of principle.
Donations to the Anderson Free Clinic help the underserved in need of health care.
Education through Safe Kids and Doclink programs improve children’s welfare.
Through 2024, AnMed’s annual Camellia Ball, alone, has raised more than $5.5 million to meet the community’s greatest needs.
The United Way and charities that complement our mission by promoting health and wellness or improving social determinants of health were generously supported by AnMed and its employees in 2024. Other beneficiaries include:
• Cancer Association of Anderson
• AIM, or Anderson Interfaith Ministries
• Westside Community Center
• YMCAs in Anderson, Easley and Powdersville
• PlaySafe USA
• Habitat for Humanity
AnMed also helps make possible community enrichment and culture activities. Beneficiaries in 2024 include:
• Celebrate Anderson
• Anderson Arts Center
• GAMAC, or the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium
• Rock the Country
• Rhythm on the River
• Anderson University athletics events
After Hurricane Helene leveled destruction throughout the Southeast, AnMed teammates gathered and delivered donations and contributions to recovery efforts in
western North Carolina. They helped neighbors in South Carolina, too, while enabling the health system to maintain operations even as their own households suffered damage.
Such service is a hallmark of our 116-year-old not-for-profit system. It’s cherished as the embodiment of our vision: Working together for better health and a better life.
• 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
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
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.
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 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
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.
