DHEC OK's Medical Center Expansion

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has approved ’s much-contended expansion project. 

In November 2010, the medical center applied to DHEC for a Certificate of Need for a $26 million facility expansion. .

Earlier this year, the expansion was . DHEC held a project review for the expansion project in August. The review included allowing Roper to present their opposition to the expansion project.

According to a release from Summerville Medical, the state's decision reinforces the immediate need for additional hospital beds in the Summerville and Dorchester County community.

The statement called the expansion "crucial to providing the community the quality health care they need." 

"We are pleased the state honored its own health plan and look forward to getting started on this much needed project focused on quality health care," Medical Center CEO Louis Caputo said.

In a statement released Wednesday, Roper St. Francis maintained the "numbers don't add up" for the center's expansion.

"We are not opposed to Summerville Medical Center expanding services if that is what Dorchester County needs. We are opposed to what this could mean for the people of Berkeley County," said Doug Bowling, vice president and chief strategy officer for Roper St. Francis Healthcare.

"Unfortunately it is the people of Berkeley County who could be left without a hospital because of Trident's actions. Trident refuses to explain this very basic inconsistency: Trident says the Berkeley County population cannot support the two hospitals that are proposed for construction there, which would include 100 beds. They contradict themselves entirely by asserting that Dorchester County's population, with a population almost one-third smaller, must have 124 beds. We will continue to follow the process, including the right to have the DHEC staff decision reviewed by the Administrative Law Court."