Beaufort Memorial breaks ground for Bluffton Community Hospital

More than 150 community members, government officials and Bluffton business leaders came out on a partly-cloudy May 7 to commemorate a shining milestone for Beaufort Memorial: the construction of the Bluffton Community Hospital.

This 28-bed, $103 million facility will be the first hospital in Bluffton, and will feature a full-service emergency department, imaging and laboratory services and a surgery center.

“This is very exciting for us. It’s exciting for the medical staff, and it’s exciting for the patients. We know that patients are choosing today to travel from Bluffton to Beaufort Memorial, 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, addressing event attendees on Wednesday morning. “We need more accessible care. We need more providers, and this sort of facility allows us that opportunity.”

Baxley said that the goal is for the facility to be completed and seeing patients by the end of 2026.

The commemorative event was held on the site of the new hospital, 10 Innovation Drive, located right on the corner of Bluffton and Buckwalter Parkways. Speakers included Bluffton Mayor Larry Toomer, Beaufort County Council chair Alice Howard (District 4) and vice-chair Anna Maria Tabernick (District 6), chair of Beaufort Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees Bill Himmelsbach and South of Broad Healthcare chair Steve Meyer.

Mayor Toomer acknowledged Beaufort Memorial’s long road to this milestone and welcomed the Bluffton Community Hospital to the Bluffton business community.

“Bluffton keeps growing and is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the state,” he said. “This hospital brings healthcare closer to home. We appreciate Beaufort Memorial and its perseverance in stepping up to continue to meet the needs of our residents.”

The 90,000-square-foot hospital is rightsized for the Bluffton community, Baxley said, and Tabernick noted that in its first year, the hospital would bring 250 jobs to the area. 

In the southern part of the county, Beaufort Memorial is moving forward on several expansion projects this spring, including breaking ground on a combination emergency room and urgent care facility on southern Hilton Head Island and the kickoff of construction on LiveWell Terrace by BMH, an affordable workforce housing project in collaboration with the Town of Bluffton, Beaufort County and Woda Cooper Companies.
For more information on Beaufort Memorial’s ongoing expansion projects, visit BeaufortMemorial.org/ExpandingAccess.