Healthcare and hospitals
in Myrtle Beach.

The short answer

Six hospitals now, and about 1,085 beds

Where is the nearest hospital, and what can it handle? Buyers ask us that early, and the numbers say they should: 30 of every 100 residents here are 65 or older, against about 19 of every 100 across the United States. We do not rank hospitals or tell you which to use. What follows is what exists, where it is, and what each one holds, from the health systems' own pages.

Bed counts and addresses are from each health system's own site. The 1,085 total is our arithmetic on this table. Tidelands Health is an MUSC Health affiliate; Grand Strand Health is part of HCA Healthcare.

Free-standing emergency rooms fill the gaps between them. Grand Strand Health runs one on the north strand, one in Carolina Forest on Oakheart Road, and South Strand Medical Center on the US-17 Bypass at Sheffield Parkway. Conway Medical Center broke ground in October 2025 on a free-standing emergency department in the Socastee area.

Under construction

Three hospitals are being built at once

This is unusual and it is a direct consequence of how fast the county is growing. As of August 2026, here is where each one stands.

McLeod Health Carolina Forest, 48 beds

A four-story hospital on the Carolina Forest campus with operating suites, imaging and laboratory. It licensed its first four beds and began admitting patients on 21 January 2025, and McLeod said in January 2026 that it remains on schedule to open in 2026. It is the first new hospital built in Horry County since McLeod Health Seacoast opened in 2011.

South Strand Hospital, 59 beds

Grand Strand Health broke ground on 9 February 2026 on the US-17 Bypass at Sheffield Parkway, next to its existing free-standing emergency room. Fifty-nine inpatient beds and four operating rooms, at about $220 million, with completion expected late 2027. It is part of a larger program that also adds free-standing emergency departments in Conway, Murrells Inlet and Little River.

Tidelands Health Carolina Bays, 36 beds

At the interchange of SC-31 and SC-707 in south Horry County, with MUSC Health. Site work has begun and construction is expected to finish in late 2028. The campus is planned to include a long-term acute care hospital and a rehabilitation hospital alongside the 36-bed acute-care building.

Certifications and awards

What the hospitals hold, from the bodies that award it

We do not grade hospitals. The awarding bodies publish who holds what, and that record speaks for the system here.

Grand Strand Medical Center is an adult Level I trauma center and a pediatric Level II trauma center, with heart surgery on site. Healthgrades placed it among America's 250 Best Hospitals in 2023 and 2024, and among America's 100 Best for stroke care and for critical care in 2023, 2024 and 2025. It also holds the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus award.

Tidelands Waccamaw and Tidelands Georgetown are both certified by the Joint Commission as advanced primary stroke centers. Waccamaw is a designated baby-friendly hospital and an adult Level IV trauma center, and Tidelands Health is an affiliate of MUSC Health.

Conway Medical Center runs an accredited family medicine residency program sponsored by Campbell University, which means new doctors do part of their training here, and it has been an independent, locally governed non-profit since 1928.

Veterans

The VA clinic here is outpatient

The Myrtle Beach VA Clinic at 1800 Airpark Drive is a community-based outpatient clinic within VA Charleston Health Care, open weekdays, with primary care, mental health, geriatrics, laboratory, imaging and telehealth. The nearest full VA medical center is the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center at 109 Bee Street in Charleston. There is no VA clinic in Conway, North Myrtle Beach or Georgetown. If you are buying with a VA loan, that drive is worth knowing about at the same time.

Where you buy

The area you choose changes the drive

North strand: McLeod Health Seacoast is the hospital in Little River, and Grand Strand Health runs a free-standing emergency room on the north strand. Central: Grand Strand Medical Center is in Myrtle Beach, and Carolina Forest has both the McLeod Health Carolina Forest hospital, admitting patients since January 2025, and a free-standing emergency room on Oakheart Road. Inland: Conway Medical Center. South strand: Tidelands Waccamaw is the hospital in Murrells Inlet, the South Strand free-standing emergency room is on the US-17 Bypass with the 59-bed hospital under construction beside it, and Tidelands Georgetown Memorial is further south.

On the south strand there are gated and ungated communities directly across the US-17 Bypass from the South Strand Hospital construction site, and there is a wide selection of homes within a short drive of each hospital above. Which one is closest depends on the address, not the town name, so we measure it per address.

If access to care is one of your criteria, say so when we start, and we will find you a home near a hospital with the kind of care you need. The town by town page sets out the other practical differences between the areas, and the pros and cons page covers what daily life here is actually like.

Common questions

Myrtle Beach healthcare FAQ

Sources: Grand Strand Health, Conway Medical Center, McLeod Health, Tidelands Health, VA Charleston Health Care. Bed counts, designations, awards and project dates are as published by each system or awarding body and were current in August 2026. We are not medical advisers and this page does not rank or recommend any provider.