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COLUMBIA, S.C. — In one week, a new agency will oversee public health services across South Carolina.

Starting next Monday, the Department of Health and Environmental Control, DHEC, will no longer exist and will be replaced by two new state agencies.

Last year, Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law that dissolves DHEC and splits its responsibilities between the newly formed Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Department of Environmental Services, which will take effect July 1.

“We’re convinced we can and we will make South Carolina the healthiest state in the nation,” Dr. Edward Simmer, the current director of DHEC and interim director of DPH, said during a news conference Monday morning in Columbia.

Simmer believes they have an opportunity to do that under this reorganization.

“We are about 45th in terms of overall health out of the 50 states, and that’s dreadful,” he said. “We need to do much better than that.”

Simmer said for services like obtaining birth certificates and requesting immunizations, the process will essentially be the same as it has been.

He said phone numbers will remain the same in the transition from DHEC to DPH, and people who try to go to DHEC’s website will automatically be forwarded to the new DPH website, which will launch next Monday.

“For people who use our health departments and are receiving services from our health departments, you will continue to get the same service from the same location and from the same people that you’ve grown to trust and know. That will not change,” he said.

But Simmer said the creation of this new agency gives them a top-down opportunity to evaluate how they are operating and serving South Carolinians and to improve it.

Simmer said that includes putting more resources into outreach and engagement efforts.

“That’s what’s so critical is making sure that whatever we do is focused on each individual community, meets that community’s needs, because we know what’s needed in rural Bamberg County may be different than what’s needed in the Charleston peninsula and may be different than what’s needed in Cherokee County, and we need to tailor solutions to each of those places, and we need to let the communities determine what those solutions should be,” he said.

The other new agency beginning July 1, the Department of Environmental Services, will oversee services including air and water pollution, water management, and septic tanks.

Further realignment of state agencies could still happen in the future.

A bill to merge six agencies into one fell just short of reaching the governor’s desk this year, but supporters have pledged to renew their push next year.

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