BLUFFTON — Beaufort Memorial Hospital's more than six-year effort to open a small facility in Bluffton has ceased. The Lowcountry community medical provider folded its plans to build a 20-bed acute-care hospital, withdrawing the certification state license that it initially received in 2018, and moving to dismiss the lawsuit that kept it from breaking ground. Building the facility was projected to cost nearly $45 million.
Beaufort Memorial CEO Russell Baxley said the organization plans to build a medical office building in its place with the ability to add a freestanding emergency department, ambulatory surgery center and other services down the road. He said the community hospital wanted to start construction in January and that continuing to fight the lawsuit would have caused an unwanted delay. Emergency department plans continue Lowcountry David vs.
Goliath health care battle Beaufort Memorial announced the joint venture with Medical University of South Carolina in 2018. State health department officials approved the plans in July 2018 and awarded the group a Certificate of Need for the project. This state certification process is designed to keep expenses down and control health services available in an area.
MUSC Health eventually stepped away from the project to make the certification process smoother, according to the public hospital's CEO Patrick Cawley. The planned facility received opposition from hospitals in Hilton Head and Hardeeville, which were then owned by.