Bluffton Community
Hospital
Sitework Underway | Opening 2027
10 INNOVATION DRIVE, BLUFFTON
Beaufort Memorial Bluffton Community Hospital will be located at 10 Innovation Drive, at the corner of Bluffton Parkway and Buckwalter Parkway by the Buckwalter Place plaza.
When looking at a map, it is the plot of land adjacent to Publix Supermarket off of Innovation Drive.
When
The Beaufort Memorial Bluffton Community Hospital began to take shape in February 2025 as construction crews broke ground for sitework preparations. Construction is estimated to take about 18 months to complete. Barring any delays in that timeline, the building will open at the beginning of 2027.
Why
Beaufort County is growing at an exponential rate. Based on the 2023 U.S. Census population estimates, more than 198,000 people call Beaufort County home, a 6.3% increase from 2020. The town of Bluffton saw a 27.1% population increase in that same timeframe. As our community grows, so does the need for services, including health care. As we have done for the last 80 years, Beaufort Memorial will continue to grow with the Lowcountry, providing comprehensive care and innovative services to you, your loved ones and neighbors.
Featuring
Beaufort Memorial Specialists:
Breast Surgery
General Surgery
Gastroenterology
Gynecology
Orthopedics
Urology
Quality Care Close to Home
Emergency Services
2 Triage Rooms
5 Fast Track Rooms
13 Treatment Rooms
Trauma Room
3 Ambulance Bays
Decontamination Room
Helipad
Imaging Services
X-ray | MRI | CT
Ultrasound
Flouroscopy
Nuclear Medicine
Laboratory
Surgery Center
4 Surgical Suites
2 Endoscopy Procedure Rooms
20 Pre-Operative/Recovery Rooms
Acute Inpatient Care
28-Bed Nursing Unit
Bluffton Community Hospital FAQs
10 Innovation Drive, Bluffton
The hospital will be located at the corner of Bluffton Parkway and Buckwalter Parkway by the Buckwalter Place plaza. When looking at a map, it is the plot of land behind Publix Supermarket off of Innovation Drive.
Construction is underway on the Beaufort Memorial Bluffton Community Hospital with a ceremonial groundbreaking on May 7, 2025. The project is expected to take 18 months to complete. The building is expected to open and operational in early 2027.
The three-story, Bluffton Community Hospital (BCH) will include a full-service emergency room, imaging services, a surgery center, laboratory and a 28-bed nursing unit providing acute care.
Within the emergency department will be two triage rooms, five fast track rooms, 13 treatment rooms, a trauma room, decontamination and three ambulance bays. A helipad will be located next to the building for incoming emergencies and expedited transfers to higher levels of care.
The surgery center will have four surgical suites, two endoscopy procedure rooms and 20 pre-operative/recovery rooms. The types of procedures to be performed will include breast surgery, general surgery, gastroenterology, gynecology, orthopedics and urology.
Supporting both emergency services and surgical procedures will be a full-service laboratory and imaging center, including X-ray, MRI, CT, ultrasound, fluoroscopy and nuclear medicine.
Recruiting for providers, medical staff, and supporting personnel is an ongoing effort at Beaufort Memorial. In addition to bringing in new hires, personnel from other existing facilities will be transferred both temporarily and permanently to ensure that the new facility is adequately staffed. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply for existing openings and begin their career at an existing Beaufort Memorial facility.
To help position Beaufort Memorial as the region's preferred employer, the organization has implemented employer-subsidized childcare, assistance with affordable housing and several workforce development projects as part of our People Achieving Their Highest (PATH) Program. The PATH Program provides career pathways and onsite education as a way to develop the excellent clinicians and staff we need, while offering upward mobility for employees. The PATH Career Development Center on our Beaufort campus houses a satellite location for the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) Nursing Program, in addition to providing classrooms and state-of-the-art simulation labs to train current and future Beaufort Memorial team members.
To introduce future generations of Beaufort Memorial employees, we offer summer Rising Star internships for area high school students and a dual enrollment program in partnership with the Beaufort County School District.
If you would like to get involved in the Beaufort Memorial Bluffton Community Hospital project as a donor, please contact the Beaufort Memorial Foundation.
For persons interested in career opportunities, openings for positions at this new facility will be listed on the Careers section of the main BMH website at a later date. We encourage applying for openings at any of our existing locations now and becoming a part of our growing team sooner rather than later!
More health care options elevates the service and quality of care, benefiting patients and the community. Given the growth that the Bluffton area is experiencing and the projected growth over the next 5-10 years, there will be plenty of demand to warrant new options for inpatient and outpatient care.
The total budget for facility is $103-million
- $70-million in construction
- $23-million in equipment
- $10-million in professional fees and soft costs
Beaufort Memorial, acknowledging the need for a new hospital in Bluffton, filed a Certificate of Need (CON) application for a 20-bed "micro-hospital" in 2018 and faced legal opposition from a competing health system for over six years.
Our belief in the Bluffton area's need for a hospital has not wavered.
This planned micro-hospital was challenged for years, and we chose not to stand by as those actors reversed their course and sought state approval to build their own hospital less than 300 yards away from our project.
More health care options strengthen a community, ultimately elevating the service and quality of care. Our opposition was not about limiting options.
On January 14, 2025, the S.C. Department of Public Health (DPH) hosted a public hearing at the request of Beaufort Memorial regarding our competitor's plans. Learn what happened at the hearing and more about Beaufort Memorial's stance.
Sitework for the Bluffton facility kicked off in February 2025, and as of March 2025, our second CON application to add 28 inpatient beds to the third floor of the facility (submitted in December 2024) has been approved, shifting this project back to "hospital" status.
Yes.
Beaufort Memorial requires all physicians and advanced practice providers, including physician assistants and nurse practitioners, on the medical staff to be board certified or board eligible. These same requirements will apply to all providers coming on board for the new facilities.
We continue to recruit for the very difficult to obtain specialties of endocrinology and rheumatology, as does Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC Health) through our affiliation agreement. These specialties are available via telehealth through MUSC Health.
Emma June Grosskopf - Beaufort Memorial Media Relations Manager
Email: emma.grosskopf@bmhsc.org
Office: (843) 522-5732
Within the first year of the Bluffton Community Hospital's opening, Beaufort Memorial will add 250 new jobs to the local workforce.