The system has withdrawn a state license for a 20-bed acute-care hospital that it initially earned in 2018 after moving to dismiss the lawsuit that kept it from breaking ground.
Instead of opening the hospital, the system plans to instead open a medical office building with a freestanding emergency department, ASC and the ability to open other services down the road.
Beaufort Memorial first announced the joint hospital venture with Medical University of South Carolina in 2018, earning a certificate of need for the project that year.
MUSC Health eventually stepped away from the project to make the CON process smoother, according to the report.
Hospitals in Hilton Head and Hardeeville, S.C., then owned by Tenet Health, opposed Beaufort Memorial and MUSC’s joint effort. Candler Hospital in Savannah, Ga., also challenged the certification.
In October 2018, Beaufort Memorial and MUSC appealed the state health department’s decision in administrative law court.
Beaufort Memorial withdrew its certificate of need for the facility Sept. 10 and a judge signed an order dismissing the litigation following a jointly proposed motion from the community hospital.
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