News
June 01, 2007
KCMC ready to move ahead with Elgin medical complex.
6.01.2007
Chronicle Independent
By Martin L. Cahn
Kershaw County Medical Center will spend $19.2 million to build its proposed Elgin medical complex, according to a Certificate of Need the hospital plans to submit to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control in the next 30 days.
The services planned for the new building could shape the future of health care services in the county, said KCMC President and CEO Donnie Weeks. They include urgent care, imaging, cardiology, sleep diagnostic, laboratory, (non-retail) pharmacy and physical and occupational therapy services. The KCMC Board of Trustees voted unanimously to authorize the certificate following an executive session at the end of its May meeting Tuesday night.
"This project will be of great benefit not just to the western part of the county, but in five years or so on the economic impact to the entire health care system," said Board Chairman Jay Green.
The Elgin medical center would sit on 9.71 acres of land KCMC purchased last year from Kershaw County in the Wateree Executiv Park. Fact sheets handed out to trustees ahead of the executive seesion discussion and subsequent public vote indicated additional land may be available for future growth.
The building will be approximately 42,000 square feet in size, with approximately 11,000 square feet available for lease as physicians offices.
Weeks noted that some of the services are completely new to KCMC, although not neccesarily new to Kershaw County.
"Urgent care is new for the hospital," said Weeks. "I believe Doctors Care in Lugoff is the only urgent care provider in the county now."
He said imaging services would include CT, MRI, mammography, X-ray, ultrasound and bone density. The hospital's existing Sleep Diagnostic Center would stay where it is on Haile Street in Camden near the main campus but expand to Elgin.
If there's an possible controversial move, acknowledged Weeks, it is the cardiology services KCMC plans to offer in Elgin.
"There would be some competition with existing services," Weeks said without going into specifics. Locally, both Sentinel Health Partners and the South Carolina Heart Center provide such services.
Weeks said he believes it will be the Elgin medical complex's location that will make the difference, not just to KCMC but to those Kershaw County citizens living in the Elgin area.
"We are trying to make this a truly comprehensive health care system, with this hospital being the core," said Weeks.
Board members, Dr. Marguerite Carlton, a pediatrician, and Jody Wade Brazell said the move reflects the growth the Elgin area has experienced. "There is just a great need there," said Carlton, whose offices are at the West Wateree Medical Complex in Lugoff. "That's where the growth is - the families that have to be served. Otherwise, we'll lose them to Richland County."
"This would be more accessible to people living there," added Brazell. "When someone living near the county line needs urgent care and they don't know which way to go, this will help."
Of the total $19.2 million price tag, $13.7 million would go to constructing the facility; the remaining $5.5 million would be used to purchase equipment. KCMC anticipates all funding to come from bond financing. According to fact sheets, the hospital expects to experience a loss of $1.147 million the first year and another $620,000 the second year. In the third year, losses would be shaved to $213,000 and then turn around to a $99,000 profit in the fourth year. The hospital expects to see a $414,000 net gain by the complex's fifth year.
Construction could start as soon as the CoN is approved by DHEC. And that's just the beginning, in more ways than one.
Weeks also announced the board should expect a second CoN in the next few months for an ambulatory surgery center to be built at the Elgin complex.
"This would reflect new services for the entire county," said Weeks. "Right now, when someone wants outpatient surgery, it's performed in our hospital. Otherwise, they have to go out of the county."
KCMC projects 40 new jobs could be created at the Elgin complex.
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