Charleston, S.C.-based MUSC Health is investing $30 million to expand the number of emergency department beds at its hospital in Columbia, according to a news release sent to local news outlets Sept. 18.
When complete, the expansion will nearly double the number of beds in the ED at MUSC Health Columbia Medical Center Downtown. The project will allow the hospital to provide more advanced emergency services, including trauma and stroke care. It comes amid significant population growth in the city of Columbia, hospital officials said.
The project is expected to be finished by early 2026.
"Our normal ER operations will continue uninterrupted," Bill Phillips, MD, the hospital's chief medical officer, told CBS affiliate WLTX. "The clinical lab space will move first, that space will then be renovated, and then the current part of the ER will be renovated following that, so there's no disruption in care."