CMC receives approval from DHEC for new hospital
Conway Medical Center (CMC) is extremely pleased by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) decision today to approve a Certificate of Need to transfer 50-beds to a new facility to be built on International Drive in Carolina Forest. CMC Carolina Forest will offer the full range of services to one of the faster growing communities in South Carolina including women’s health, surgical, emergency, cancer care, orthopedics, and imaging.
“This is a major win for the Carolina Forest community. We are thrilled DHEC recognizes the importance of what Conway Medical Center will bring to this area in a facility that will be unlike any other in the state,” said Bret Barr, President and CEO of CMC. “As the first hospital in Horry County, there is no better healthcare system to provide the services so desperately needed in this growing area. This decision allows CMC to provide a total healthcare solution that will create happier, healthier lives for the people of Carolina Forest and beyond.”
The new state-of-the-art $160-million facility would consist of 50 hospital beds, including eight labor and delivery rooms, two C-section rooms, six ICU beds, three operating rooms, and a six-bay infusion center. The beds will be transferred from CMC’s current 210-bed licensed capacity at its main campus in Conway. These beds are currently under-utilized at the main facility, and the transfer will allow CMC to properly align resources to meet our community’s growing healthcare needs.
In addition to the wide array of healthcare services, this new hospital would also create more than 250 new jobs.
CMC has been involved in positive discussions with Horry County government officials centered around the impacts of this new facility on the Carolina Forest community. The project is currently being reviewed by Horry County, and discussions continue on the planning development agreement.
CMC expects the construction of the project to take three years.
The facility will include engineering highlights unlike any other hospital in the state and specifically designed to minimize environmental impacts, as well as provide infection control measures throughout the facility. The project will be designed using environmentally sustainable materials, methods, and systems and will be LEED accredited, making it one of the first new hospitals in South Carolina to be so environmentally friendly. The facility will be the first hospital in South Carolina, and one of only a very few in the world, to be designed from the ground up with a pandemic mode allowing for all patient rooms to function as infectious patient isolation rooms. Radiology, operating rooms, and the emergency department will include specific systems to allow for the isolation and treatment of infectious patients. The design includes anti-microbial touch surfaces and microbe-neutralizing air distribution systems.
