Residents in the booming town of Bluffton have experienced some notable challenges over the past decade as the population of the area has grown faster than its infrastructure.
Healthcare is no exception – and the town’s first community hospital, driven by Beaufort Memorial, is set to be open and seeing patients at the beginning of 2027, less than a year and a half away.
Officials from Beaufort Memorial, the Beaufort Memorial Foundation, South of Broad Healthcare, the Town of Bluffton and Beaufort County ceremoniously break ground for the new hospital.
“Bluffton keeps growing; it’s one of the fastest growing municipalities in the state,” said Bluffton Mayor Larry Toomer, who noted that out of the area’s main infrastructure needs, medical facilities and medical care top the docket.
On May 7, Beaufort Memorial – with the help of more than 150 community members – broke ground on the 28-bed, $103 million Bluffton Community Hospital, which is currently under construction on the corner of Bluffton and Buckwalter Parkways.
“We know that patients are choosing to travel from Bluffton to Beaufort Memorial Hospital for care, so it’s incumbent upon us as healthcare providers to make sure we meet the patients where they are,” said Beaufort Memorial President and CEO Russell Baxley. “We need more accessible care. This facility allows us that opportunity.”
The nonprofit hospital system has had a foothold in Bluffton since 2006 and has been committed to bringing the same care to their own backyard that Bluffton patients travel to Beaufort to receive.
Growing with the community isn’t enough, said Steve Meyer, board chair of South of Broad Healthcare, a Beaufort Memorial affiliate.
“The growth has to be strategic, and this hospital is an example of smart growth,” Meyer said. “Beaufort Memorial is rightsizing this facility, which will be efficient, state-of-the-art, and technologically advanced without overbuilding, providing patients south of the Broad River with highly specialized healthcare without driving up its costs to those patients or the community.”
The 90,000 square-foot, three-story facility will include a full-service emergency department, surgery center, laboratory, inpatient acute nursing unit and imaging services.
“This is a community hospital; it is built for the Bluffton community,” Baxley explained. “It’s going to be focused on what Bluffton patients need.”
Creating jobs, building opportunities
In its first year, the Bluffton Community Hospital will create 250 jobs, with between 70 and 80 of them nursing positions.
Employing more than 2.2% of the county’s workforce, Beaufort Memorial is currently the county’s largest private employer. While the hospital in Bluffton will be convenient for patients south of the Broad River who currently travel to the hospital in Beaufort to receive their care, the new location will open more career and advancement opportunities for the nursing talent in the Lowcountry as well.
Tricia Evegan, BSN, RN, Beaufort Memorial director of nursing supervisors and float pool, lives in Bluffton and said she’s thrilled about the opportunities that a hospital in the area provides to the organization’s staff.
“Currently, there is no hospital in Bluffton, which means that local, convenient hospital employment opportunities for the nursing talent and other caregivers in the Bluffton area are limited,” Evegan said. “This community hospital will allow more individuals the opportunity to join the organization, as well as the opportunity to advance into leadership roles.”
Evegan has been commuting from Bluffton to Beaufort for two decades, choosing a lengthy commute to work in an organization with “a deep connection to and roots in the community.”
“Our strength is in our people, and this new hospital will allow us to continue to become stronger,” Evegan added.
Along with advancement opportunities for Bluffton nursing talent, the addition of a hospital in the southern part of the county will allow current Beaufort Memorial providers flexibility in providing coordinated care countywide. With the help of Beaufort Memorial’s association with MUSC Health, this hospital will allow for the recruitment of even more physicians to the market, expanding primary and specialty care throughout the Lowcountry – not just in Bluffton.
“This hospital touches on so many priorities for us, like access to care in a growing community and provider recruitment,” Baxley said. “As we build this new facility, it’s an anchor to recruit more providers and allows us to meet the staff where they are, too. As Bluffton grows, as Beaufort and Hilton Head Island grow, we want to provide other locations for our great nursing, clinical, support, and medical staff members.”
Why A Community Hospital?
It’s there in the name – Bluffton Community Hospital – but what does it mean?
“Beaufort Memorial was founded in this community, in Beaufort County, more than eight decades ago,” said hospital President and CEO Russell Baxley. “We’ve been working ever since to evolve and expand to meet its healthcare needs.”
Beaufort Memorial has invested in the community through outreach and education initiatives, as well as charity care and providing free services to patients of other community safety net partners such as the Bluffton and Hilton Head Island Volunteers in Medicine (VIM), Good Neighbor Medical Clinic, and AccessHealth of the Lowcountry.
The organization has also worked to address barriers to care by providing free rides to patients without transportation, offering free health screenings at neighborhood events on the Beaufort Memorial Mobile Wellness Unit, providing assistance with the cost of medications and supplying 250 meals every week to food insecure community members. It also means providing some services like mental health and inpatient psychiatric services at a loss because they are desperately needed and no one else is meeting those inpatient and acute care needs.
“Continuing that outreach and charitable partnerships with the Bluffton Community Hospital and organizations south of the Broad River will further Beaufort Memorial’s mission to expand access to care,” Baxley added. “We are committed to addressing the barriers to healthcare in our community that affect health outcomes, and that is exactly what a community health system does.”
Bluffton resident Tricia Evegan, the hospital’s director of nursing supervisors and float pool, with Beaufort Memorial President and CEO Russell Baxley.
Beyond Bluffton
While Bluffton’s need for a hospital has steadily increased over the past few years, the Bluffton Community Hospital is just one step in the direction of expanding access for patients in the southern part of the county.
This summer, the organization will hit another construction milestone on a completely different facility – a combination emergency room and urgent care located on the south end of Hilton Head Island at 1016 William Hilton Parkway.
The combination facility will be one of the first of its kind in South Carolina, with a unique billing process that charges patients only for the specific services rendered. The typical bill for an emergency room visit for an emergent case costs about $3,712, though many ER cases are actually non-emergent and can be treated easily at an urgent care center.
Baxley addresses attendees at the May 7 groundbreaking celebration.
“One of the things that we talk about more and more these days is the cost of care,” Baxley said. “This facility’s approach not only potentially reduces out-of-pocket expenses for patients but also saves time and alleviates the stress of choosing between ER and urgent care.”
Beaufort Memorial has also made strides in making workforce housing affordable, and this summer, the organization will be breaking ground on LiveWell Terrace by BMH, an affordable housing development also located in Bluffton – less than a mile from the future hospital.
The next few months will also see new providers joining the ranks of the organization in primary care as well as specialty care areas like orthopedics, pulmonology, and cardiology.
“Patients in Bluffton and throughout the Lowcountry deserve improved accessibility to high-quality, innovative healthcare,” Baxley said. “We are making huge strides as a nonprofit health system to deliver that care to them.”
