Thank you to our community
From our very beginning, community has been at the heart of Tidelands Health.
In the 1940s, Georgetown American Legion Post No. 114 spearheaded an effort to build a hospital to serve the area. At the time, the nearest hospital was 60 miles away.
A game-changing $100,000 donation from Thomas A. Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox and a frequent visitor to Georgetown, jumpstarted fundraising for the new hospital. On May 11, 1950, the hospital now known as Tidelands Georgetown Memorial Hospital opened, beginning a legacy of community care that endures today.
“It started out as an integral part of the community, because the community is the one that put it here,” said Francis “Jeepy” Ford Jr., a current member of our board of trustees whose family has been intertwined with the health system since his grandfather, Albert W. Ford Sr., served as the post commander who led fundraising efforts for the hospital. “It makes me feel really good that so many people support us and so many people use us.
“You always feel good when people help people. We are the front line for people in our community. I feel really good that the community spirit of Tidelands Health is moving into the future.”
Ford’s great uncle, Ralph Ford, who served as chairman of the board starting in 1947, made contact with his friend Tom Yawkey to request that crucial $100,000 donation in the 1940s. Today, The Yawkey Foundation continues to carry on its founder’s legacy through generous support of our health system, contributing more than $15 million to our health system to date.
Tom and Jean Yawkey
“That was huge,” said Ford, who was the second baby born at the new hospital in 1950. “God only knows where we’d be without all of the contributions from The Yawkey Foundation. We certainly would not be the hospital and health system we are today.”
Ongoing funding from The Yawkey Foundation and others supports unique initiatives such as Tidelands Community Care Network, a public-private partnership that helps uninsured and underinsured adults access health care.
In the past year, The Duke Endowment gave a $500,000 grant and The Leon Levine Foundation donated $225,000 to support the network, which helps community members get needed medications, access nutritional foods and get transportation to physician appointments, among other services. Since its inception in 2012, Tidelands Community Care Network has helped more than 9,000 people and now boasts more than 50 partners, including government agencies, non-profits and religious organizations.
Our health system continues to explore creative ways to serve. One new initiative has helped community members conveniently and safely dispose of unwanted or expired medications. Through secure MedDrop containers at our hospitals, community members disposed of 900 pounds of medications in 2024, the first full year of the program.
Delivering care has certainly evolved since our organization’s early days. In 2024, we implemented Epic, the industry-leading electronic patient medical record. The state-of-the-art platform is transforming the delivery of health care in our region, helping care providers collaborate and streamlining access for patients through the new My Tidelands Health app featuring MyChart.
“That has been a big step in the right direction,” Ford said. “I feel like it will just get better as time goes on.”
We’ve embraced technologies such as Epic to meet the growing needs of the community we serve, staying true to our core purpose.
"That initial group of folks who came together with the help of Tom Yawkey and others over the years to construct that hospital and get it up and off the ground – there were so many that participated in that,” said Dan Scheffing, chairman of our board of trustees. “It was the right group at the right time to make that happen. We’re proud to carry that torch forward.”
