MUSC to borrow USD 705M to build new hospitals in Berkeley, Lancaster

The Medical University of South Carolina health system will seek to borrow up to $705 million to finally build new hospitals in fast-growing areas of Berkeley and Lancaster counties.

The Medical University Hospital Authority Board of Trustees voted to seek up to $395 million for a 70-bed hospital and a 30,000-square-foot medical office building in Nexton. The board also approved up to $310 million for a 50-bed hospital and 60,000-square-foot medical office building in Indian Land, just south of the North Carolina border.

The hospital authority now needs to get approval from the State Fiscal Accountability Authority to go out on the market for the loans.

Both are projects that the health system has pursued for years but ran into delays, said Dr Patrick Cawley, CEO of MUSC Health. The required state licenses for those hospitals, known as a Certificate of Need, were fought by competitors. And the pandemic didn’t help, Cawley said.

“We’re finally past the Certificate of Need challenges, we’re finally past where Covid slowed everything down, and now we’re ready to really proceed,” he said.

General contractors and architects have already been hired and have started work.

“Now we’re ready to start building,” Cawley said.

He anticipated breaking ground within a year. Post and Courier