3-story medical center opening Monday near Sun City. Find out if your doctor is moving
Beaufort Memorial Hospital is opening a new three-story medical facility near Sun City on Monday with an express care clinic, walk-in clinic and cancer treatment center.
The 70,000-square-foot building, called the Okatie Medical Pavilion, will offer a range of services from outpatient rehabilitation to appointments with vascular surgery specialists. There are no inpatient beds or surgical suites.
The area’s population is one of the fastest growing in South Carolina, the hospital’s top executive said Wednesday.
“We just can’t keep up with the growth,” CEO Russell Baxley said.
Because of that, the hospital is pushing to expand south of the Broad River.
The new facility at 122 Okatie Center Boulevard North includes a walk-in clinic, full-time primary care options, orthopedic services and specialists in cardiology, gastroenterology, general surgery and neurology, among other things.
The building also has:
The New River Cancer Center, which provides radiation and medical oncology services, chemotherapy and access to clinical trials or cancer subspecialists.
An express care clinic, open seven days a week for treatment of minor injuries or illnesses.
A breast health center, with screening and diagnostic mammography, diagnostic ultrasounds and bone density screenings.
An imaging center, which offers CT, MRI, X-ray and cardiac stress testing.
The 19-acre property is replacing the hospital’s existing multispeciality offices in Bluffton’s Westbury Park, so patients who saw doctors there will now go to the Okatie center.
The following Bluffton practices are moving to the new facility: Beaufort Memorial Bluffton Primary Care, Beaufort Memorial Breast Health Center, Beaufort Memorial Obstetrics & Gynecology Specialists, Beaufort Memorial Heart Specialists, Beaufort Memorial Heart Specialists, Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group, Beaufort Memorial Surgical Specialists and Coastal Neurology/Beaufort Memorial Memory Center.
Beaufort area locations of those practices are not moving.
Adult and pediatric subspecialists from the Medical University of South Carolina will also be available at the center.
Dr. Eugene Hong, chief physician executive at MUSC, said residents now won’t have to travel to Charleston for some of the system’s services. Specialists in dermatology, foot and ankle orthopaedics, and neurosurgery are on hand for telemedicine appointments or visits in Okatie.
Baxley said the project’s construction costs totaled about $22 million, and the entire facility had a price tag of $25 to $26 million when including the facility’s cancer center.
“Being here four years, it’s a long time coming,” he said. “We’ve been talking about it for a while.”
The hospital’s board of trustees had been discussing the idea of expanding into the Bluffton area before Baxley arrived in 2016, he said.
Construction began at the site in May 2019.
“We’ve set out a very aggressive strategy here,” Baxley said.
He added that the hospital is still planning to build a $44 million “micro-hospital” on roughly 12.5 acres of land at the intersection of Bluffton and Buckwalter parkways. That project, a joint venture with MUSC, would include a 15-bed emergency room and 20 acute care beds.
The Bluffton Town Council voted to approve an initial plan for the micro-hospital in March 2019.
