Is There a Doctor Nearby?
WHEN A FAMILY WITH children moves from one place to another, the first thing they consider is the quality and proximity of local schools. In many
BY BRIAN SHERMAN
cases, the next item on their list is medical care. Will their new home be reasonably close to a hospital? Do a wide range of physicians practice their specialty nearby? In the tri-county area of the
Lowcountry this important informa- tion is available online and at no charge to local residents and anyone else considering taking up residence in the state. Te South Carolina Medical Network consists of dozens of Web sites, with plans to increase that number well into the hundreds. Its extensive database already includes information about more than 20,000 physicians and about hospitals and interviews with South Carolina and Lowcountry physicians and other medical professionals.
Tat information can be accessed with the click of a mouse. At www.
SCmedicalNetwork.com, residents of the Lowcountry and the rest of South Carolina or of, say, Minneapolis or Newark or Kansas City, can find a wide range of area doctors, searching by city, specialty, name, phone num- ber or address, for example. Alterna- tively, they can call up a list of doctors
who practice at a specific medical facility or hospital. Once visitors to the site find doctors or hospitals that interest them, they can locate them on a Google map. “We’ve created a physicians’ search engine that is open to the public, and there is no charge at all,” said Bill Macchio, publisher of Media Services, which launched the South Carolina Medical Network. “In most cases and in most places, hospitals are the institutions that deliver this type of information, and they usually deliver it only about physicians who practice at their facilities. We don’t care where the doctors practice. We just want to let consumers know where the doctors are and how they can find them.” “We’re not affiliated with a medi-
cal group, insurance company or a hospital,” he added. Te South Carolina Medical
Network provides more than just a database of area physicians. Visitors to
www.SCMedicalNetwork.com will find feature articles about area physicians who have chosen to join the network, as well as easy access to other related sites, including Charles-
tonPhysicians.com, MountPleasant-
Physicians.com, SummervillePhysi-
cians.com, LowcountryHospitals. com,
DoctorsofMyrtleBeach.com,
ConwayDoctors.com and Goose-
CreekDoctors.com. Tese sites are more oriented to specific areas of the
www.ILoveCharleston.com |
www.ILoveMountPleasant.com |
www.ILoveSummerville.com
Lowcountry. Te network also features non- medically-related sites, providing an opportunity for other businesses, including realtors, to reach out to people who might be relocating to an area to search for just the right doctor. In fact, Media Services has matched its physicians’ database with the Multiple Listing Service, enaling a potential homeowner to find “the doctor next door” to the home they are considering. According to Macchio, Media Ser- vices is intent on making the database as accessible as possible to the general public. Along those lines, the database can be included on any Web site that is part of the South Carolina Medical Network. “We wanted to be as informative as possible,” Macchio commented. “People searching for a home can see the location of doctors’ offices and hospitals that are closest to their new neighborhood. We’ve integrated our database with properties in the local MLS. And the South Carolina Medical Network is a great way for hospitals and doctors to provide information about themselves to local residents or families who are moving into the area.”
For a free doctors’ listing or to join the South Carolina Medical Network, e-mail Publisher@SCMedicalNetwork. com or call 1 (800) 433-7396, ext. 21.
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