Ground broken for hospital

Roper Mount Pleasant facility to open in 2010

The Post and Courier

Provided/Seamon Whiteside & Associates

For more than three years, Roper St. Francis Healthcare officials have labored over plans for an 85-bed hospital to serve a fast-growing part of Mount Pleasant.

On Thursday, their plans became something tangible as officials broke ground on the $143 million project.

"I think it marks a pretty significant milestone that we're moving forward and (will be) able to conveniently address and meet the health care needs of the East Cooper community," said John Sullivan, the new hospital's chief executive officer.

Roper St. Francis will begin clearing half of the 78-acre wooded site for the expansion of its health care system. Crews will start putting in the sewer system, water mains and power lines with the goal of laying the foundation in September.

The work will be slightly set back from motorists driving on U.S. Highway 17, but passers-by likely will notice some activity, Sullivan said. The site is near Wando High, at the entrance to the planned Carolina Park residential development.

The ground-breaking event also celebrated a 90,000-square-foot medical office complex to be built adjacent to the new hospital. Roper St. Francis plans to use the building to help ensure a smooth transition to the site and sign up physicians and other health care providers before the hospital begins taking patients.

The $21 million office building is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009, a year before the hospital. The state Department of Health and Environmental Control, which regulates medical facilities in South Carolina, said the new hospital can't open until November 2010.

The timetable is meant to give East Cooper Regional Medical Center a head start on opening a 140-bed hospital in early 2010 to replace its existing facility near Highway 17 and U.S. Interstate 526.

Reach Katy Stech at 937-5549 or kstech@postandcourier.com.