New clinic offers Summerton its only medical facility

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A new adult clinic opened its doors for the first time in Summerton last week with its official ribbon cutting ceremony.

The clinic offers residents of Summerton its only adult health care facility.

Certified adult nurse practitioner Dale Barwick, the owner of the new business, was a former employee of Carolina Geriatric Specialists in Sumter. Though living in Sumter with her husband, they planned to move permanently to their property at Lake Marion.

While job hunting in Clarendon County last summer, Barwick stopped into Summerton Drugs on Main Street. Noticing that there were no doctors offices in the town to apply to, she asked the owner of Summerton Drugs, Gene Phillips, why there were no clinics in Summerton. After talking with Phillips about the town, he mentioned that he owned an empty building next to his store.

“That’s when I told him that I might be interested in opening up my own clinic in Summerton,” said Barwick. “I just had to make sure that it would be a viable thing to do. Mr. Phillips was so interested in having a provider come to town that he let me use the building. I have been welcomed with open arms in the Summerton community. I have been really surprised by the extent of illness that I have seen since I have been there, and it is mostly because people have not had a provider to take care of their chronic illnesses.”

Barwick is an adult nurse practitioner; her facility specializes in adult care and caters to patients from 18 years of age and up.

Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ericka Sexton Floyd was at the ribbon cutting ceremony held April 5 to participate in the grand opening.

“We are so excited to have Dale Barwick in Summerton," she said. "It is a great addition for the town of Summerton and for Clarendon County. She has been in business for years in Sumter so were glad to have her in this neck of the woods. A few of her patients have actually followed her to Summerton, so that just goes to show how great of a nurse practitioner she is, and we are excited to have her as a chamber member, too, and look forward to her business growing. Whatever we can do to help promote her business we will do it."