Nurse practitioner center expands access to primary care.

In response to a need for increased patient access to primary care services in an area with a shortage of primary care physicians, not-for-profit Oconee Memorial Hospital, Seneca, South Carolina, opened a primary care center staffed solely by nurse practitioners. In addition to reducing the number of patients using the hospital's emergency room for nonurgent care, the center has improved patients' access to primary care services, strengthened the community's primary care base, and helped the hospital's managed care network win contracts.