Trident Medical Center, Charleston, SC

Trident Medical Center announced today it has submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) to build a freestanding emergency department on James Island.

Preston Wendell, MD, Trident Health’s medical director of emergency says, “An issue that’s increasingly become a challenge in the Lowcountry is the amount of time it takes to drive. In a medical emergency minutes can mean the difference between life and death. By expanding to James Island we are bringing emergency care closer to families.” There currently is not close access to emergency services for residents of James and Johns Island.

According to the CON the facility will be called James Island Emergency and will be located at 945 Folly Road. Current plans call for construction on the nearly 13,000 square foot facility to begin in July of 2019 with an anticipated completed in March 2020. The estimated price is nearly $12.5 million.

Trident Health President and CEO Todd Gallati says, just like the health systems’ other emergency rooms, James Island Emergency will be staffed by board-certified emergency physicians as well as nurses with specialized training in emergency care. Trident Health consists of two acute care hospitals - Trident Medical Center and Summerville Medical Center; two freestanding emergency rooms - Moncks Corner Medical Center and Centre Pointe Emergency; and two urgent care centers - CareNow® Urgent Care Goose Creek and CareNow® Urgent Care North Charleston.

“Nearly 170,000 Lowcountry residents were treated by Trident Health emergency physicians and clinicians last year,” explained Gallati. “And, in conjunction with our designated pediatric ER at Summerville Medical Center, we are among South Carolina’s leaders in providing emergency pediatric care. I’m proud of the emergency care our teams provide families in the Lowcountry. We are looking forward to providing high quality, compassionate care to James Island families.”

The expansion to James Island follows Trident’s announcement last week that it has submitted a CON to construct a freestanding 43-bed/$35 million behavioral health facility in North Charleston.