For more than a half-century, residents of Georgetown and surrounding South Carolina counties have received healthcare services provided by a dynamic, progressive not-for-profit organization known regionally today as Georgetown Hospital System.

Growth, in terms of facilities, medical staff, services and employees, has been at the core of Georgetown Hospital System’s development. When it opened in 1950, Georgetown Memorial Hospital had 50 beds and a 14-member medical staff. Through the years, beds were added as services and medical staff increased. Today, Georgetown Memorial Hospital has 131 patient beds, and is a full service facility that includes ICU and Step-Down beds, a Cardiac Cath Lab, Endoscopy, Surgical Services, Emergency Department, Labor and Delivery, Pediatrics and several telemetry-equipped medical-surgical nursing units.

In 2002, Georgetown Hospital System opened its second hospital, Waccamaw Community Hospital, to meet the needs of the county’s rapidly growing northern service area just south of Myrtle Beach, one of the state’s best-known tourist meccas. Waccamaw Community Hospital has added beds in two separate expansions and today has 111 beds, which includes 29 acute inpatient rehab beds housed in Waccamaw Rehabilitation Center, on the facility’s third floor. Service capabilities at Waccamaw Community Hospital closely parallel those available at Georgetown Memorial Hospital. Waccamaw Community Hospital will add a fourth floor in the latest expansion project.

In 2004, Georgetown Hospital System opened a $10 million cancer treatment center, Francis B. Ford Cancer Treatment Center, which offers local cancer patients the opportunity to receive both chemotherapy and radiation therapy without being forced to leave the county. The project was undertaken as a joint effort with Medical University of South Carolina’s (MUSC) well-known Hollings Cancer Center.

In March 2006, responding to dramatic population growth and a need to plan for the future, Georgetown Hospital System announced intent to relocate the current Georgetown Memorial Hospital to a larger campus not far from the current location in Georgetown.  This important move will allow for future expansion and growth in response to the needs of the community.  Learn more about plans for the new hospital and the re-development of the existing hospital campus.

Other recent additions to the organization include a new advanced Imaging Center at Waccamaw Medical Park located in Murrells Inlet near Waccamaw Community Hospital. Opening in summer 2006, the facility offers state of the art open MRI and breast imaging capabilities. A Breast Health Center within the building offers a variety of imaging capabilities designed for routine breast screening and diagnostic purposes, including MRI Breast Coil technology that provides technologists with breast specific MRI capabilities, and stereotactic breast biopsy services. In addition, a complete educational resource library is available at the center. The Breast Health Center offers digital mammography for a first time to women in Horry and Georgetown counties.

Also located at Waccamaw Medical Park, NextStep Wound Healing Center was added to the NextStep Rehabilitation Services family of programs in 2006. Our NextStep Wound Healing Center takes a multi-disciplinary approach to wound management and offers comprehensive treatments using leading edge techniques such as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO).

With two hospitals, more than 165 medical staff members and modern facilities housing a full complement of diagnostic and treatment modalities, Georgetown Hospital System continues to grow to meet the ever-changing needs of its service area.