Roper plans complex

Health care provider seeks approval to move 3 operating rooms to Carnes Crossroads

The Post and Courier

Roper St. Francis Healthcare is taking the first steps toward building a large medical facility in a rural part of Berkeley County that's set to explode with development.

The company has filed a request with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to move three operating rooms from its Moncks Corner facility to a yet-to-be built two-story complex in Goose Creek. DHEC regulates the addition or transfer of operating rooms and other medical facilities throughout the state to protect the quality of health care, ensuring that there's enough demand to support the changes.

A competitor said Wednesday it objects to the plan but declined to say if it plans to oppose it formally.

The new complex will be built at Carnes Crossroads, a massive mixed-use development proposed by the Daniel Island Co. So far, developers have spent millions of dollars to install infrastructure such as roads and sewer lines for residential and commercial portions of the site, said President Matt Sloan. Workers will begin building the first homes early next year, he said.

Earlier this year, Roper St. Francis officials paid $8.9 million for about 64 acres at the development for what one day could be the county's first full-service hospital. The land sits at the intersection of U.S. highways 176 and 17A.

Douglas Bowling, vice president of system development for Roper St. Francis, said Tuesday that relocating the operating rooms puts the company's services "more toward the epicenter" of that area's population and expected growth.

The existing Moncks Corner location will continue to serve patients without the operating rooms, Bowling said. Other services at that facility include emergency care, laboratory work and physician offices.

The new building will have offices for primary and specialty care doctors, said spokeswoman Tricia Crimminger. It also could have a diagnostic center that provides lab work and imaging.

One competitor signaled Wednesday that the plan may face opposition.

Jim Rardin, vice president of development for Trident Health System, which owns Trident Medical Center in North Charleston, said the plan is incompatible with state guidelines. "We've reviewed the application, and we don't think DHEC can approve it under the requirement of the state health plan," he said through a spokesperson.

Rardin declined to specify the part of the application he considered objectionable and declined to say whether his company plans to object formally to the project.

Trident owns about 20 acres at the nearby Cane Bay subdivision. Late last year, another Trident executive told The Post and Courier that Roper St. Francis' presence at Carnes Crossroads wouldn't interfere with any possible medical development Trident plans for its own site.

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