MUSC board votes to approve campaign to construct new College of Medicine academic building

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Medical University Hospital Authority (MUHA) Board of Trustees held their regularly scheduled committee sessions and board meeting on Thursday and Friday, Dec. 9-10, respectively. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many attended the meeting via video conference. The meetings were held in the MUSC board room with a limited number of attendees physically present in keeping with COVID-19 protocols. Several other participants joined the meetings via video conference.

On the education front, the board voted to approve the launch of a major capital project, fundraising for a new MUSC College of Medicine (COM) academic building. The proposed building will be located at the corner of President and Bee Streets, on the site of the existing Vince Moseley building. Although full design and construction costs for the new building are not final, it is anticipated that a portion of the funding will be obtained through philanthropy and college reserves set aside for this purpose.

“The new MUSC College of Medicine building will provide an academic home for the college in addition to much-needed offices and educational space,” said MUSC President David J. Cole, M.D., FACS. After its most recent LCME accreditation visit, the college received full accreditation for the maximum eight-year term.

“Achieving this level of accreditation takes years of work by a team of dedicated professionals,” Cole stated. LCME stands for Liaison Committee on Medical Education. The group is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the accrediting body for medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree in the United States or Canada.

Among other matters reviewed, the trustees voted to approve the plan for MUSC Health leaders to submit two certificate of need (CON) applications to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). DHEC must issue a CON before certain types of health care acquisitions, expansions and creation of new facilities are allowed.

“We continually track and assess the needs of the communities we serve, reconfiguring our resources to meet those changing needs and demands,” said MUSC Health CEO Patrick J. Cawley, who also serves as vice president for Health Affairs, University.

In one CON, the request is to relocate 42 rehabilitation beds from MUSC Health Florence Rehabilitation Hospital Medical Center-Cedar Tower to MUSC Health Florence Medical Center. This will place more resources in the location with consistently higher community needs.

If permitted by DHEC, the second CON will allow MUSC to purchase and situate the first PET/MRI scanner in the Charleston area. This scanner is the imaging modality of choice for certain types of cancers. If approved by DHEC, it will be located at MUSC Health Elms Center in North Charleston. The facility provides lung cancer screening as well as other specialized oncology services. Imaging can provide early detection and opportunities to closely evaluate the impact of cancer treatments.

In other business, the 16-member MUSC/MUHA board also voted to approve the following items:

• Adoption of Notable, the leading intelligent automation company for health care. The business partnership will create a seamless digital experience for patients throughout their care journey, plus design and enable AI automation of clinical trials activities. To learn more, visit https://web.musc.edu/about/leadership/institutional-offices/communications/pamr/news-releases/2021/musc-and-notable-partner-to-transform-patient-and-family-experience-through-intelligent-automation
• Negotiate the sale of an MUSC-owned parcel of property on Fort Johnson Road, Johns Island. The property has remained unoccupied since late 2014 due to building conditions. The property includes a main house, garage, storage building and cistern, all of which are uninhabitable and dilapidated. The property is to be sold for an amount no less than the appraised value satisfactory to the state and any offer is contingent on the approval of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority.
• Renewal of the lease for 54,804 square feet of office and warehouse space on Albemarle Road in Charleston, where the health system’s supply chain, pharmacy and mailroom teams are housed.
• Lease renewal for 39,375 square feet of warehouse space on Deming Way in Summerville for storage.
• A new lease for approximately 2,800 square feet of clinical space located in the May River Crossing Shopping Center in Bluffton. At this location, MUSC Health will offer a range of services that include primary care, cardiology, general surgery, orthopedics and vascular surgery.

The MUSC/MUHA Board of Trustees serves as separate bodies to govern the university and hospital, normally holding two days of committee and board meetings six times a year. For more information about the MUSC Board of Trustees, visit http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/leadership/board/index.html.

About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is home to the oldest medical school in the South as well as the state’s only integrated academic health sciences center, with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and nearly 800 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. MUSC brought in more than $328 million in biomedical research funds in fiscal year 2021, continuing to lead the state in obtaining this funding. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu.

As the clinical health system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality and safe patient care while training generations of compassionate, competent health care providers to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Close to 25,000 care team members provide care for patients at 14 hospitals with approximately 2,500 beds and 5 additional hospital locations in development, more than 300 telehealth sites and nearly 750 care locations situated in the Lowcountry, Midlands, Pee Dee and Upstate regions of South Carolina. In 2021, for the seventh consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.

MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $4.4 billion. The nearly 25,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care.