Public Health Reserve Corps Available for Temporary Staffing

SCHA has been coordinating with DHEC to inventory and potentially deploy members of the Public Health Reserve Corps (PHRC) to assist hospitals with temporary staffing needs to support the COVID response. The PHRC is a volunteer group of health professionals coordinated by DHEC to help serve the state’s public health needs. The volunteers consist of registered nurses, advanced practice providers, EMT/paramedics, respiratory therapists, etc.

As part of the requirements for the program, all volunteers must maintain an active professional license, have completed a criminal background check, and have completed specific education, i.e. OSHA training, etc. The volunteers and their deployment to hospitals are outlined in the Acute Care Hospital Emergency Surge standard operating procedures.

If your hospital could benefit from the temporary resource of this group of volunteers, please contact your DHEC regional coordination center and/or the DHEC Regional PHRC volunteer Coordinator. All their contact information is provided below.

Midlands Region

Regional Coordination Center 803.576.2752

Scott Phillips, PHRC Coordinator

803.730.0701

phillist@dhec.sc.gov

Upstate Region

Regional Coordination Center 864.372.3160

Joanne Hobbick, PHRC Coordinator

864.202.1405

hobbicjm@dhec.sc.gov

Lowcountry Region

Regional Coordination Center 843.953.0062

Stefanie Roy, PHRC Coordinator

843.513.4350

roysd@dhec.sc.gov

Pee Dee Region

Regional Coordination Center 803.983.9097

Jenny Latour, PHRC Coordinator

843.331.7575

latourrj@dhec.sc.gov

Before you contact the coordination center, consider the following:

1. What types of health professionals are needed, how many, and in what roles
2. What expedited onboarding you can offer
3. What types of benefits you can offer the volunteers, i.e. free parking, free meals, travel reimbursement, etc.
4. Dates and times of need

In developing your plans and coordinating with the DHEC regional coordination center, please keep in mind that these individuals are volunteers so they should be used to supplement your needs. Not all will be immediately available for deployment.  Also, most volunteers are only willing to commit to work schedules on an average of 8 to 24 hours per week.

If you have any questions about this process, in addition to the contacts provided above, you can also reach out to Morgan Bowne or Lara Hewitt.