LAURINBURG — Despite all of the advances in technology and the health care industry over the last 100 years, there’s been a big shift from acute health problems to chronic health problems.

That statement was shred Tuesday with the Rotary Club by Gary Hatchell, senior director of rehabilitation services with Scotland Health Care Services.

But first, he shared a story from a number of years ago.

“When I was still working in the therapy area of Scotland Memorial, I was treating a young guy who was getting into motorcycle accidents,” Hatchell said. “At the time, I would have described him as adventurous, daring, courageous …

“If someone then had told me that I was treating the future president of the Rotary Club … well, I guess it just shows how old I am,” he added. Hatchell was speaking about John McLaurin.

Hatcfhell then went into talking about the workplace and community health efforts of SHCS.

“We are trying to impact the health of our community,” he said. “We all know that Scotland County is ranked No. 99 out of 100 counties for health; Robeson is No. 100; and Marlboro County, South Carolina, is No. 26 out of 26 — so that tells you where we are as a region.”

Hatchell said there’s no way to change those things overnight. Instead, he said, it’s like the question of how do you eat an elephant.

“We’re trying to do this one step at a time,” he explained. “We’re doing screenings, testings, vaccinations, blood drives and whatever we can do to make things better for our community.

“When COVID hit, however, we had to pretty much shut down,” Hatchell added. “We’ve primarily been doing COVID testing and vaccinations since.”

He then gave some eye-opening numbers.

Hatchell said they have given 1,979 mobile COVID tests; 8,069 on-site COVID tests; 200 infusions for COVID patients; and 15,450 COVID vaccinations.

“That said, we’ve performed about 28,000 procedures since COVID started,” he said. “And I’m proud of the care our people have been and continue to give.”

As for some of the biggest impacts on the negative health of the community, Hatchell pointed to obesity and diabetes as two of the biggest — each of which make a tremendous negative impact on job productivity alone.

He concluded by sayi9ng SHCS is moving into the primary care area through virtual visits.

“Obviously, we want your business, and we feel that we can provide the kind of care people here really need,” Hatchell said.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-506-3023 or [email protected].