Our Mission Statement
Delivering quality healthcare to underserved communities, implementing advanced EHR technology, increasing health care access and quality of care, utilizing church facilities.
Promoting physical, emotional, and spiritual healing to those in need.
Our Story
The low income and underserved population of rural South Carolina faces many challenges to accessing quality health care including hospitals and clinics that are located far away; rural areas account for two thirds of the primary care doctor shortages; there is a lack of consistent internet available for telehealth services in rural areas; and over 4 million South Carolinians in 2020 had no health insurance. Medical Ministries, LLC., seeks to address these challenges in a unique approach to delivering healthcare by partnering with local community churches to provide the physical facilities in which free medical clinics are located.
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Our first free medical clinic opened June 12, 2012, located in the facilities generously provided by Edisto Fork United Methodist Church in Orangeburg, SC. Since then, nine other clinics have been opened in various other churches, and Medical Ministries, Inc., has grown to more than 5,000 patients. ​These clinics have proven their ability to deliver quality care with state-of-the-art services in a medically sound and cost-effective way.
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Over the past several years Medical Ministries, Inc., has taken the idea of providing free medical services hosted within a church’s facility and enhanced that concept to creating a model of care that continues to grow every day. For example, the opioid crisis that is plaguing our rural population has become an epidemic, so Medical Ministries, Inc., has added a mental health component to help deal with domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction. Also, our wellness teams allow us to offer at home services to all types of patients that are unable to leave their homes to come to one of our local clinics.
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Through our partnerships with local churches (all denominations), regional hospitals, and other outreach organizations, we have created a comprehensive, consistent, and reliable source of quality preventative care that our patients have come to rely upon.
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Of special note in the success of our clinics is the partnership we have formed with Cerberus Healthcare, LLC., which provides their practice management and electronic healthcare records software (the Papyrus Medical System) installed on laptops that are utilized at all clinic sessions. This software system standardizes the intake of patient medical data across all providers, enables scheduling of follow-up appointments across all clinic sites, and gives the providers access to any patient’s records from any clinic. Taking this high tech approach improves patient continuity of care and eliminates unnecessary or duplicate services.
In addition to our clinics, we also provide access to food banks and participate in community health fairs, which are educational and interactive events designed for community outreach to provide basic preventative medicine (e.g., vaccines and medical screenings).
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Our Promise
Medical Ministries, LLC, treats the needs of the entire person.
From L to R: Lawrence Cantey, Dr. Timothy Bowman, Julius McDowell, Rebecca Banks
Our Board
Dr. Timothy J. Bowman – President
Reverend Julius McDowell – Vice President
Scott Sauer – Treasurer
Rev. Lawrence Cantey – Secretary
Rebecca Banks – Director
Dr. Thomas J. Bowman – Director
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Our History
In 2012 Mrs. Rebecca Banks was engaged in a serious discussion with a friend about healthcare in the Black communities and especially the high rates of hypertension and diabetes within those communities.
Mrs. Banks suggested they speak with South Carolina Senator Mike Rose, who also lived in their area. At the end of that meeting an idea was formulated of having free medical clinics utilizing the rooms and facilities of churches.
With Senator Rose's assistance we were able to reach out to Dr. Otis Engelman which led to the opening of three free primary care clinics staffed solely by volunteers within the next two months .
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Through partnerships between the faith-based communities, Dr. Engelman, Roper St. Fransis Hospital, and the medical software provided by Mrs. Banks' company we were able to offer the low income people in these churches comprehensive primary care for free.
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As we started to grow and establish ourselves, Senators John Matthews, Paul Campbell, Joe Jefferson, Vernon Stephans, and the late Clementa Pinckney, helped us obtain grants from the State of South Carolina to hire professional staff and expand our services.
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It was at this point that Medical Ministries, Inc. officially formed as a non-profit in South Carolina and obtained the 501(c)(3) tax exempt status awarded by the IRS.
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We selected our initial board members from a combination of some of the pastors of our original churches, Mrs. Banks, and Scott Sauer (a partner in Mrs. Banks' software company), who all had a desire to help people and who continue to passionately advocate for the underserved. Over the years we lost original member Rev. Willie Dicks and added Rev. Lawrence Cantey.
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