HARDEEVILLE, S.C. — Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville is getting ready for an expansion and some new MRI equipment.
“Coastal Carolina Hospital is proposing to expand its current facility in order to accommodate the addition of a MRI Center,” says the project narrative prepared by the engineer and submitted to the S.C. Department of health and Environmental Control.
“Coastal Carolina Hospital currently offers MRI services,” said Carolyn Grant, the hospital’s director of public relations and marketing.
“We are preparing to replace this existing unit.”
An MRI scan is a magnetic resonance imaging scan, a test that helps diagnose brain tumors, torn ligaments and diseases.
The proposal includes building a 2,200-square-foot addition immediately adjacent to the current facility. The hospital is located northeast of Interstate 95 and U.S. 278 in Jasper County and houses a Center for Hyperbarics and Wound Care, imaging, emergency care, rehabilitation, surgical services and other offerings.
“The replacement MRI will go into the additional square footage along with a small waiting room,” said Grant.
In 2008, the hospital’s total revenue was $19.3 million. By 2013, that figure had grown to $35.3 million, according to a database maintained by the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
The 41-bed hospital’s occupancy rate of 37 percent in 2008 grew to a rate of 45 percent last year.
Its Medicare occupancy rate grew from 51 percent in 2008 to 69 percent in 2013.
Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina Hospital’s Medicaid occupancy rate peaked at nearly 10 percent in 2012 and dipped to 7 percent the following year.
The facility, considered to be rural and for-profit, is not categorized as a teaching facility. The site at 1000 Medical Center Dr. is about three miles from the New River.