After a six-year legal battle, Beaufort (S.C.) Memorial Hospital has withdrawn its certificate of need for a planned hospital in Bluffton, S.C., the hospital confirmed in a statement shared with Becker's.
Instead, the hospital plans to build a medical office building on the available space, featuring a freestanding emergency department, an ambulatory surgery center and room to add services in the future, the statement said.
State officials approved the certificate of need for the microhospital in July 2018. Beaufort Memorial said it had hopes of opening the 20-bed Bluffton facility in 2022.
The $44 million project was initially supposed to be built and operated through a joint venture between Beaufort Memorial and Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina. For the sake of a more streamlined process, MUSC Health eventually opted out of the project, Beaufort Memorial CEO Patrick Cawley said, according to The Post and Courier.
The planned facility faced opposition from area hospitals, which, in 2018, appealed the state's decision to award a certificate of need for the project in court, questioning the need for the project and its financial feasibility, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a certificate of need repeal in 2023. This prompted one of the contesting hospitals, Candler Hospital in Savannah, Ga., to drop its legal challenge that year, according to The Post and Courier. Still, legal challenges from other area hospitals, including Hilton Head (S.C.) Hospital and Hardeeville, S.C.-based Coastal Carolina Hospital, remained ongoing, the report said. The Hilton Head and Hardeeville hospitals are among three Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health acquired from Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare in February.
"Over the last six years, Beaufort Memorial has spent time battling opposition to the planned facility in court, and it's very possible that without a shift in planning, that battle — and subsequent timeline delays — could continue," Beaufort Memorial said in its statement.
"We cannot wait any longer or risk any further delay of this project as growth in southern Beaufort County has continued to expand the need for more access to healthcare."
Beaufort Memorial withdrew its certificate of need for its planned hospital in Bluffton on Sept. 10.