Between last December and this July, four new medical buildings opened within the Bluffton orbit of Four Seasons at Carolina Oaks. They brought a primary care office, an imaging center with MRI and mammography, a cancer infusion clinic and an emergency department that never closes. Not one of them is a hospital. Both Bluffton hospitals announced so far are still on the way, one with an early-2027 target and the other with a groundbreaking that hasn't happened yet.
That order matters for anyone deciding where to book an annual physical, a scan or an infusion this winter. Scheduled care is now available in Bluffton, but an overnight hospital stay still takes place outside it.
Eight Months, Four Openings
| Opened | Facility | Address | What it handles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 9, 2025 ribbon-cutting | Novant Health New Riverside Primary Care | 375 Hope Pond Way, Unit 107 | Adult and pediatric primary care, sick visits, labs, physicals, immunizations, chronic-condition care |
| May 26, 2026 ribbon-cutting | Novant Health Buckwalter Place Medical Park | 400 Buckwalter Place Blvd. | Primary care, orthopedics and sports medicine, imaging |
| June 2, 2026 | MUSC Health Bluffton Medical Pavilion | 700 Buckwalter Towne Blvd. | Primary care, Hollings Cancer Center oncology and infusion, pulmonary and sleep, vascular, after-hours care |
| July 21, 2026 | Novant Health Bluffton Emergency Department | 8 Parkside Drive | 24/7 emergency evaluation and treatment, CT, X-ray, lab |
Each opening covers a different kind of visit. Taken together, they handle the routine appointment, the specialist referral, the scan that usually follows, the recurring treatment and the middle-of-the-night emergency. All of it opened within eight months.
The Routine Visit Moved Closest First
The first piece was the most ordinary one. Novant Health New Riverside Primary Care held its ribbon-cutting on Dec. 9, 2025, as Bluffton Today reported. Its address is 375 Hope Pond Way, Unit 107. The Novant location page lists sick visits, labs, physicals, immunizations and ongoing care for chronic conditions, alongside adult and pediatric primary care.
For a 55+ household, that list covers most of a year's appointments: the annual physical, the flu shot, the standing lab order. The office carries the New Riverside name, so the most frequent visit of the year now happens on the same side of town as the grocery run.
Specialists and Scans Gathered on Buckwalter
The next two openings sit near each other on the Buckwalter corridor, and they go further than primary care.
Novant cut the ribbon at Buckwalter Place Medical Park, 400 Buckwalter Place Blvd., on May 26. The park opened with a primary care clinic and an orthopedics and sports medicine practice that moved there. In the same May 27 announcement, Novant described an imaging center with X-ray, mammography, CT and MRI. By July 21, Novant was calling the park recently opened and listing the imaging center among its services. The imaging center's listing gives hours of Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A week after that ribbon-cutting, MUSC Health Bluffton Medical Pavilion opened to patients on June 2 at 700 Buckwalter Towne Blvd. Bluffton Today described a 54,000-square-foot building. Inside are primary care, a Hollings Cancer Center satellite clinic, pediatric specialty and after-hours care, phlebotomy, pulmonary and sleep-lab services, and vascular care. In its own announcement, MUSC said the cancer and specialty services make care more convenient for patients in Bluffton and the surrounding area.
Infusion is the detail that changes a household's calendar the most. A scan happens once, but infusion often means repeat visits on a schedule, so the location of the chair shapes weeks of someone's routine. As of June, there is a Hollings oncology and infusion chair in Bluffton.
Heart care added a name nearby in Okatie. Beaufort Memorial Heart Specialists brought interventional cardiologist Paul Slota to its practice at the Okatie Medical Pavilion, 122 Okatie Center Blvd. North, Suite 300. The practice treats acute and chronic heart conditions, and catheterization procedures are performed at Beaufort Memorial, according to Bluffton Today. That arrangement is the pattern of 2026 in one practice. The consultation happens close to home, and the procedure happens at a hospital campus.
The Emergency Department Is the Front Door
The last opening drew the most attention, and its role is the most specific. The Novant Health Bluffton Emergency Department opened July 21 at 8 Parkside Drive, just off Buckwalter Parkway. It is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Bluffton Sun reported that the 10,000-square-foot building has 10 treatment rooms, including a dedicated trauma room, along with on-site CT, X-ray and lab testing. Board-certified emergency physicians staff it.
It's a freestanding emergency department. In Novant's description, it provides the same level of emergency evaluation and treatment as a hospital-based department. It can stabilize and treat a wide range of conditions, and it arranges transport to a hospital when a patient needs more specialized care. Dr. Erica McEnery, medical director for emergency services at Novant Health Hilton Head Medical Center, put the goal this way in that release: "This facility allows patients to receive expert emergency care where they live, with advanced diagnostics and experienced emergency medicine teams available around the clock."
Diagnosis and stabilization now happen in Bluffton. An inpatient stay, if one is needed, still means a transfer. Everything opened this year shares that limit, and the next section covers the projects meant to close the gap.
The Hospital Calendar, Read Carefully
Three projects remain. Each has published dates, and two of them have already shifted.
Beaufort Memorial Bluffton Community Hospital, 10 Innovation Drive. It sits at Bluffton and Buckwalter parkways and is planned as a 28-bed hospital with a 24/7 emergency department, surgery center, cath lab, inpatient acute nursing unit and imaging. At its December 2025 topping-out, the system expected construction to finish in late 2026 and first patients to arrive in early 2027. The current project page still says "Opening 2027" with no specific day or month. In July, WJCL reported that Beaufort Memorial was recruiting care staff and had scheduled a Bluffton career event for Aug. 27.
Novant Washington Square medical office building, Parkside Drive. This 40,000-square-foot building next to the emergency department is planned for primary care, cardiology, gastroenterology, outpatient procedures and other specialties. Novant's April 2025 groundbreaking release targeted spring 2026. A May 2026 release moved that to July. When the ER opened in July, Novant said the office building was still under construction. The Bluffton Sun's Aug. 4 report also described it as under construction and gave no opening date.
Novant Health Bluffton Medical Center, near Lake Point Drive and Buckwalter Parkway. The state approved Novant's certificate of need in March 2025 for a $320 million, 50-bed hospital that can expand to 100 beds. At the time, Novant projected a 2028 opening. The Bluffton Sun repeated 2028 in August 2026. Later that month, WTOC reported that final local approvals were still pending, with groundbreaking expected in early 2027. About two years of construction after that points to a possible opening in 2029.
For anyone keeping a household calendar as November begins, only one of these projects has a target inside the next year. Beaufort Memorial's early-2027 opening is a matter of months, and the system has been hiring for it. The Washington Square office building has missed two targets, and the most recent reports give no new one. The Novant hospital's date depends on approvals that hadn't been granted as of late August.
Further out, in Hardeeville, Novant said in June that Coastal Carolina Medical Center at 1000 Medical Center Drive had plans underway for a new operating room and emergency department renovations. It also named robotic surgery investments, including Da Vinci and Mako 3. No completion dates were given.
What Sits Where, This Winter
The appointments a household books most often all have Bluffton addresses now:
- Physicals, sick visits, labs and immunizations: Novant New Riverside Primary Care, Novant Buckwalter Place and MUSC Bluffton Medical Pavilion
- MRI, CT, X-ray and mammography: Novant Buckwalter Place imaging, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Oncology and infusion: the Hollings Cancer Center satellite at MUSC Bluffton Medical Pavilion
- Orthopedics and sports medicine: Novant Buckwalter Place
- Cardiology consults: Beaufort Memorial Heart Specialists at the Okatie Medical Pavilion
- Emergencies, any hour: Novant Health Bluffton Emergency Department, 8 Parkside Drive
Inpatient beds, surgical suites and cath labs are still at hospital campuses outside Bluffton, at least until Beaufort Memorial's Innovation Drive hospital opens next year.
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