Beaufort Memorial gets green light for hospital in Bluffton

Bluffton expansion pivots to include inpatient beds after state approval

Beaufort Memorial has reached a huge milestone in its expansion south of the Broad River, moving forward with the Bluffton Community Hospital (BCH), a medical facility formerly called the Bluffton Community Medical Campus (BCMC). 

On March 24, the South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) approved Beaufort Memorial’s Certificate of Need (CON) to add 28 inpatient beds to the planned medical campus in Bluffton. This approval has allowed the project to transition from a medical office building with expansion on the horizon, to a full-blown hospital when the facility opens its doors.

The road to bringing a hospital to Bluffton has been a long one. In 2018, the state approved Beaufort Memorial’s first CON to bring a 20-bed “micro-hospital” to the Bluffton area, with construction scheduled to wrap up by 2022. 

Beaufort Memorial withdrew that CON in September 2024 following six years of competing health system opposition to the project in court. This was not the end of the project nor Beaufort Memorial’s plans to bring much-needed healthcare to the booming Bluffton area. Instead, the organization pivoted, planning to construct a medical office building with a freestanding emergency department and ambulatory surgery center – with built-in opportunities for expansion. 

Learn more about this project’s timeline. 

In December 2024, Beaufort Memorial submitted another CON to the state for approval – a CON to add inpatient beds to the planned Bluffton facility. 

The DPH approval of this CON on March 24 shifted the project back to a “hospital” instead of a medical office building. 

Even though the end goal was the same – a Beaufort Memorial hospital serving Bluffton residents right in their backyard – this approval now allows Beaufort Memorial to construct the facility in a single stage instead of two phases (a medical office building first, then the addition of inpatient beds later when the CON requirement sunsets in 2027). 

This will shorten the overall project timeline and bring that much-needed care south of the Broad River sooner, in addition to saving the organization hundreds of thousands in construction costs. 

The Bluffton Community Hospital (BCH) will open in late 2026 or early 2027. 

Site clearing for the hospital began in early February, and a groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for May 7. 

At this facility, a project with a total cost of $103 million, Beaufort Memorial will provide both inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures in addition to emergency medical care and all of the related support services (imaging, lab, pathology, trauma, inpatient care). 

1st Floor

• Full Service Emergency Department:
  
  • 2 Triage Rooms
  • 5 Fast Track Rooms
  • 13 Treatment Rooms
  • Trauma Room
  • Decontamination Room
  • 3 Ambulance Bays
  • Helipad
• Imaging Services:
  
  • X-ray
  • MRI
  • CT
  • Ultrasound
  • Fluoroscopy
  • Nuclear Medicine
• Laboratory & Pathology

2nd Floor

• Outpatient Surgery Center:
  
  • 4 Surgical Suites
  • 2 Endoscopy Procedure Rooms
  • 20 Pre-Operative/ Recovery Rooms

3rd Floor

• Acute Inpatient Care:
  
  • 28-bed Nursing Unit

 

Find out how you can support this project and Beaufort Memorial’s mission to expand innovative, compassionate, patient-first care throughout the Lowcountry.

Learn more about Beaufort Memorial’s commitment to expanding access to primary and specialty care across the Lowcountry. 

Expanding Health Care Access in Bluffton
Expanding Health Care Access in Beaufort
Expanding Health Care Access in Hilton Head