Lexington Medical Center has opened its newest care facility.

Lexington Medical Center Cayce is now open at 1111 Knox Abbott Dr., currently offering urgent care and laboratory services, according to a release.

"The addition of Lexington Medical Center Cayce will help us continue to meet the health care needs of our friends, families and neighbors by increasing access to the care they need when and where they need it,” Tod Augsburger, president and CEO at Lexington Medical Center, is quoted. “Residents in Cayce and West Columbia can now receive comprehensive urgent care and imaging services close to home, while neighboring communities have another location within our network to receive the highest quality care.”

The release notes numbers from the Urgent Care Association that show the number of urgent care centers in the country has grown about 7% annually since 2019, with patient volume increasing 60%.

With the addition of the Cayce location, Lexington Medical Center now has six urgent care centers in the Midlands, with the others located in Chapin, Irmo, Lexington and northeast Columbia.

The Cayce location is open Monday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

Dick Hartpootlian running for re-election

While one of the two Democratic state senators serving Lexington County will step away at the end of his current term, the other has announced he will seek re-election.

Dick Harpootlian, who has served in the state Senate since 2018, will seek the District 26 seat that he has been moved into after recent redistricting. That redistricting would have forced Harpootlian and Nikki Setzler, the other Democrat state senator serving the county, to face off in a primary if they had both chose to seek re-election.

Setzler, the longest-tenured current state senator in the nation, revealed last week that he won’t seek another term.

“I’ve challenged the status quo & changed the way business is done at the State House,” Harpootlian posted to X (formerly Twitter) about his November re-election bid. “ I’ve asked hard questions & didn’t accept a system that doesn’t work for the people of my district. Join me!”