PRIMARY CARE

Primary Care Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 8am – 4pm, 1st Friday of the Month 8am – 12pm

PREVENTATIVE CARE

Prevention of disease is an important step toward good health. Our medical providers do routine wellness checks, such as physical exams, and will provide or refer you for age-specific, evidence-based cancer screenings to identify them in their early stages. No-cost cancer screenings are provided for colon, prostate, and cervical cancer in addition to a referral process for paid mammograms.

We also offer no-cost genetic cancer screening for eligible patients with a family history of cancer. Genetic testing can provide an accurate assessment of your risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer. Take a quiz here to see if you qualify.

CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Chronic disease management works best when a patient and doctor can work together. At Shifa Free clinic, our internal medicine physicians are excellent at what they do, and they genuinely love helping patients with chronic illnesses find a better way to live.

Some of the diseases we manage include:

  • arthritis
  • asthma
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • coronary artery disease
  • depression
  • heart disease
  • rheumatoid arthritis
  • Type 1 diabetes
  • Type 2 diabetes

IMMUNIZATIONS

Shifa Clinic is providing vaccines for Hepatitis B, Gardasil, Tetanus, Flu, Pneumoccal, Shingles for adults. In addition, we are a VFC site for children and provide all vaccines recommended by ACIP. If you are eligible, there is no cost to the vaccine if you are uninsured or underinsured. It is important to do what you can to prevent illness during this pandemic. Vaccines not only reduce your risk of illness but can prevent hospitalizations and deaths.

For all immunizations appointments, schedule by calling (843) 352-4580.

DIABETES PREVENTION PROGRAM

The prestigious accreditation from the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) or the American Diabetes Association verifies that our program meets national standards for diabetes self-management education, which have been shown to be cost-effective and improve clinical outcomes and patients’ quality of life. We have a multi-pronged approach, to help many patients who are struggling to manage their diabetes by streamlining their care by tracking their blood sugar levels and food intake, customizing their medication, and being more proactive around preventative screenings. To help improve the health outcomes we include the following:

Pharmacy students in their 2nd and 3rd year at Medical University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy students provide education to patients including diet and exercise counseling, blood glucose monitoring, medication management and work closely with providers to provide both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapeutic recommendations for a variety of chronic disease states.

Shifa Free Clinic has joined the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) project for Technology Assisted Case Management in Low Income Adults with Type 2 Diabetes (TACM-2 ). The purpose of this program is to develop a practical and sustainable system of diabetes management that will help low income patients with a HbgA1c of 8.0 or higher achieve and maintain blood sugar and blood pressure goals within established treatment guidelines regardless of geographic location. Participants receive free blood glucose monitors with the capability of transmitting readings over the phone. Patient readings will be reviewed by an MUSC nurse case manager who will guide each participant in making appropriate medication adjustments (using a Shifa Clinic medical staff approved algorithm) and adopting behavioral lifestyle changes. Meters are distributed to current and newly diagnosed qualifying patients are also able to communicate in Spanish to promote use by Hispanic participants.

Those with consistently uncontrolled diabetes are at risk for developing diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in U.S. adults aged 20-74. Diabetic retinopathy may not cause symptoms immediately; therefore, early detection through screening is the best way to prevent vision loss in patients. Through our on-site vision program we are able to provide annual vision screening to all of our diabetic patients.

Through our partnership with Americares and Direct Relief we are able to provide patients no cost Insulin and other antidiabetic medications including basalgar, tradjenta , metformin etc.

OUR PRIMARY CARE TEAM