Conway Medical Center, an affiliate of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health, has called off plans to build a $161 million hospital in Carolina Forest, S.C., The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach reported Aug. 13.
Pushback from environmental groups and a change in the state's certificate-of-need law prompted the health system to abandon the planned 50-bed hospital, according to the report. Instead, CMC aims to build an $18 million emergency department between Conway and North Myrtle Beach.
"The property will be designed to grow as the community grows and the needs grow," CMC President Brian Argo told The Post and Courier. "It could be surgery centers, it could be medical office buildings, it could be in-patient beds one day. But right now, we think it is purely a freestanding emergency department and we'll see what the community does."
The planned freestanding emergency facility would include 12 emergency beds, provide imaging services and provide care to about 17,000 people in its first year.
CMC did not respond to Becker's request for comment.