Summerville Medical Center officially broke ground Tuesday on a future 50,000-square-foot facility for innovative health services for women and children.
The $53 million project, set for completion in 2019, will usher in significant change for Trident Health, as the Summerville hospital will become the health care organization's primary site for delivering babies. Trident Medical Center in North Charleston currently boasts that designation and will still maintain the necessary staff and equipment to care for emergency births even after the expansion is completed.
Overall Trident Health officials said their facilities deliver more newborns annually than any other medical center across the Lowcountry.
"We're proud so many families choose us for their care," said Summerville Medical CEO Lisa Valentine.
Moncks Corner resident Amy Ostrom is one mother who delivered both her children at the hospital. With her 2-month-old Makenzie bundled up in her arms, Ostrom told Tuesday's event crowd how blessed she felt to receive care at Summerville Medical, especially when an emergency birth took her by surprise.
Makenzie spent her first few days in the NICU, Ostrom said. But hospital staff helped her all along the way, giving her opportunities to ask any medical questions she was "embarrassed to ask" and educating her on postpartum depression, which she said she feared she had.
"When you feel out of control, you need some semblance of control," Ostrom said. "It is scary."
At the perfect time, a nurse grabbed her hand and put her at ease.
"I never had that anxious feeling of, 'Dear God, what's going on with my baby?,'" Ostrom said.
Dorchester County Councilman Jay Byars also offered his own personal testimonies of positive patient care and said he's thankful for "a first class hospital like Summerville Medical...right in our back yard."
In addition to a personal health issue last year that forced him into emergency care, Byars's wife also gave birth to their two daughters there.
"I trust them to always take care of me and my family," Byars said. "This expansion...validates what a fine institution they are and will improve services and accessibility for our residents to exemplary health care."
Soothing patients like Byars and Ostrom is a healthcare goal hospital staff hopes to incorporate in the new facility, the largest investment Trident Health has made in the Summerville community since opening the hospital in 1993. From room color to atmosphere, the design and layout of the facility "will cater to the patient," Valentine said. Gresham, Smith and Partners is handling the new facility's engineering and design; Layton Construction is building the site.
The expansion will specifically include a Women’s Pavilion with 30 additional beds, extra labor and delivery rooms, a C-section procedure room, newborn nursery rooms and level II nursery rooms. Advanced monitoring and imaging equipment will also be added inside the current hospital facility to support a step-down ICU unit, said hospital officials.
"We've been eagerly awaiting this project for a long time," Valentine said. "Providing access to high quality care is our top priority."
Trident Health Board Chair Doug Warren agreed.
"I am profoundly proud of this hospital," he said. "I appreciate the detail and focused discussions that always caters to families."
Also director of Dorchester County EMS, Warren said tri-county growth is a factor that largely motivated the need for the expansion. He said according to economic development experts 48 people move to the three-county region daily.
"With this growth comes need for new service."
The new site is also expected to add up to 60 new jobs over a five-year period, depending on local growth, said hospital officials.
Valentine also revealed construction will be broken up into phases, though specific timelines have yet to be determined.
The expansion initiative is just one of many feats Trident Health has boasted over the last year. Summerville Medical also added services for high-risk pregnancies in 2016, and Trident Medical achieved status as a level II trauma center.
