Patients and families in the Myrtle Beach area trust Grand Strand Medical Center, one of the region’s largest and most comprehensive hospitals, to provide competent and attentive treatment. This trust is reasonable, and every patient has the right to receive care that meets accepted medical standards, whether they arrive by ambulance for trauma care, are recovering from surgery, or are receiving treatment for a serious illness.
However, when a healthcare provider’s error, inattention, or failure to follow proper protocols causes preventable harm, that trust is broken. In such cases, South Carolina law gives injured patients and their families the right to pursue accountability and compensation. Hospital negligence can occur in any department of a large acute care facility, and the consequences range from extended recovery times to permanent injury or wrongful death.
Hughey Law Firm represents patients and families in Horry County, the Grand Strand, and across South Carolina who have been harmed by negligent care at Grand Strand Medical Center. We review medical records, investigate what happened, and pursue the full compensation our clients are owed.
Grand Strand Medical Center Guide
About Grand Strand Medical Center
The Grand Strand Medical Center, located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is a 403-bed acute care hospital offering a diverse range of medical services. These include 24/7 emergency care, heart surgery, physical therapy, and trauma centers for adults and children. The hospital is located at 809 82nd Parkway in Myrtle Beach and is owned and operated by HCA Healthcare. It serves residents of Horry County and surrounding communities, as well as the millions of visitors who travel to the Grand Strand each year.
It is home to the busiest trauma center in South Carolina and is designated as a Level I Adult Trauma Center and a Level II Pediatric Trauma Center by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). Grand Strand Medical Center is the only facility in the region with cardiac and neurosurgery programs, a pediatric intensive care unit, and a Comprehensive Stroke Center. The hospital is Joint Commission accredited and has received certifications for hip replacement, knee replacement, and stroke rehabilitation.
The hospital is affiliated with Mercer University College of Medicine, the University of South Carolina, and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. It operates graduate medical education residency programs in internal medicine, general surgery, emergency medicine, family medicine, transitional year, and anesthesiology. The hospital operates affiliated facilities throughout the Myrtle Beach area, including the North Strand Emergency Room in North Myrtle Beach and the Carolina Forest Imaging Center, which provides outpatient imaging services.
Due to its size and scope, Grand Strand Medical Center serves patients across a wide range of acuity levels, from those undergoing routine procedures to critically injured trauma patients. This breadth of services creates an equally broad obligation to every patient. If the standard of care is not met and a patient is harmed, the hospital and responsible providers may face legal accountability under South Carolina law.
Common Causes of Hospital Negligence at Grand Strand Medical Center
Hospital negligence rarely stems from a single, isolated failure. Most adverse outcomes resulting from negligence reflect a combination of systemic conditions, individual conduct, and breakdowns in communication and oversight structures designed to protect patients. Recognizing the most common sources of hospital negligence can help patients and families determine when a poor outcome may warrant further investigation.
- Inadequate staffing and excessive workload: When a hospital’s staffing levels are insufficient for the volume and acuity of patients being treated, individual providers are stretched beyond what safe care requires. In a high-volume trauma center environment like Grand Strand Medical Center, where patient acuity can be severe and the pace of care is fast, understaffing creates conditions in which errors and oversights are more likely to occur.
- Communication failures between providers and departments: At a large acute care hospital, a patient’s care typically involves multiple physicians, nurses, specialists, and ancillary staff across several departments. Critical information, including medication allergies, changes in a patient’s condition, abnormal test results, and surgical findings, must be communicated accurately and completely during these transitions. When communication breaks down, the consequences can be serious.
- Failure to adequately monitor patients: Patients admitted for acute conditions, recovering from surgery, or receiving intensive care require monitoring that is appropriate for their clinical situation. If staffing or attentiveness falls short of what a patient’s condition requires, deteriorating conditions, including postoperative complications, internal bleeding, cardiac events, and developing infections, can go unrecognized until significant additional harm has occurred.
- Delayed diagnosis and failure to act on test results: In any busy hospital environment, the volume of laboratory results, imaging studies, and other diagnostic information flowing through the system creates a risk that significant findings will not be communicated promptly to the treating provider, or that the provider will fail to act on results requiring immediate attention. The time between an abnormal diagnostic result and an appropriate clinical response often comes under scrutiny in hospital negligence investigations.
- Failure to follow established protocols: Hospitals operate according to detailed clinical protocols for medication administration, infection control, surgical safety checklists, fall prevention, and many other aspects of patient care. When staff deviate from these protocols due to time pressure, inadequate training, or poor oversight, the risk of preventable patient harm increases substantially.
- Improper medication management: Medication errors, including incorrect drug selection, incorrect dosing, failure to identify contraindications, and administration errors at the bedside, are among the most common and preventable forms of hospital negligence. These errors can occur at any stage of the medication management process, from the physician’s order to pharmacy dispensing to bedside administration.
- Hospital-Acquired Infections: These are infections acquired during a hospital stay. They include surgical site infections, MRSA, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Proper protocols can often prevent these infections. If a hospital’s infection control practices fall below established standards and a patient develops a serious infection as a result, the facility may be liable for any resulting harm.
Hospital Negligence Claims We Handle
The Hughey Law Firm represents patients who have been harmed at the Grand Strand Medical Center in a variety of clinical settings due to various types of negligence. The following are among the cases we most commonly handle:
Emergency Room and Trauma Care Errors
Grand Strand Medical Center’s 24/7 trauma center is fully staffed with board-certified trauma surgeons and experienced professionals. As the busiest trauma center in South Carolina, the emergency department and trauma unit treat a high volume of critically ill and injured patients. In this high-pressure environment, errors such as mistreatment, missed diagnoses of time-sensitive conditions, delayed surgical intervention, and failures in the handoff between the emergency department and inpatient care can cause devastating and sometimes irreversible harm.
Misdiagnosis and Missed Diagnosis
When a provider fails to identify a condition that a reasonably competent provider in the same circumstances would have recognized, the resulting delay in treatment can allow a treatable condition to progress significantly. Missed diagnoses of stroke, myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and sepsis are among the most litigated forms of hospital negligence at high-volume facilities and can result in permanent injury or death between the time of the missed diagnosis and its eventual identification.
Cardiac Surgery and Cardiovascular Care Errors
Grand Strand Medical Center operates the only cardiac surgery program in the region. The complexity of cardiac surgery and advanced cardiovascular procedures, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement, means that the standard of care obligations in this area are exacting. Errors during cardiac procedures, including surgical technique failures, anesthesia management errors, and inadequate postoperative monitoring, carry serious, often life-threatening, consequences.
Errors in Neurosurgery and Stroke Care
Grand Strand Medical Center is the region’s only provider with a neurosurgery program and a Comprehensive Stroke Center. The hospital manages the most complex neurological cases for patients throughout Horry County and surrounding areas. Errors in recognizing strokes, delays in administering clot-dissolving treatment outside of the required time window, and complications from neurosurgical procedures may constitute negligence claims if they result from a departure from the accepted standard of care.
Surgical Errors and Postoperative Negligence
Wrong-site surgery, retained surgical instruments, anesthesia errors, and technical failures during procedure execution are among the most serious forms of hospital negligence. Postoperative negligence, including failing to monitor for postoperative complications, delaying the recognition of surgical site infections, and providing inadequate pain management that masks developing complications, can also cause preventable patient harm.
Medication Errors
Medication errors at every stage of the hospital medication management process—from physician ordering to pharmacy dispensing to bedside administration—can cause serious patient harm. In a large facility managing patients on complex medication regimens, the systems designed to catch these errors must function reliably. When these systems fail and a patient is harmed, the hospital and the providers involved may be liable.
Patient Falls and Neglect
Patients at Grand Strand Medical Center who are at risk of falling are entitled to care that actively implements fall prevention protocols. If those protocols are not followed and a patient falls and is injured, the hospital may be liable. Similarly, patients who depend on staff for nutrition, hydration, repositioning, and hygiene are entitled to have these needs met. Failure to provide this basic care constitutes neglect, regardless of the hospital’s size or the volume of patients it is managing.
Hospital-Acquired Infections
Infections acquired during a hospital stay resulting from inadequate infection control practices, improper sterilization, or failure to follow established protocols are preventable and legally actionable. The additional treatment required to address a hospital-acquired infection, an extended hospital stay, and the potential for life-threatening sepsis are all consequences for which the hospital may be responsible.
Compensation Available for Victims of Hospital Negligence
According to South Carolina law, patients who have been harmed by negligence at Grand Strand Medical Center may pursue compensation for several categories of recoverable damages. The specific amounts available in any case depend on the nature and severity of the harm, the extent to which the provider departed from the standard of care, and the full scope of losses experienced by the patient and their family.
- Medical expenses cover the full cost of treating injuries, complications, and health problems caused or worsened by negligent care. This includes emergency treatment, additional hospitalization, corrective surgery, specialist care, prescription medications, rehabilitation, and any ongoing medical needs resulting from the harm sustained.
- Additional costs resulting from the adverse outcome are also covered, including home care services, transportation for ongoing treatment, adaptive equipment, and the expense of obtaining specialized care that is not available locally.
- Patients can also seek compensation for lost income and employment benefits, both past and future, for the time they were unable to work due to the harm caused by negligent care. Patients with permanent injuries affecting their ability to maintain their prior employment or earning level can also recover future economic losses.
- Pain and suffering compensation covers the physical pain, discomfort, and emotional distress caused by the negligent care and the treatment required to address the resulting harm. In most South Carolina personal injury cases, these damages are not subject to a statutory cap.
- Emotional distress reflects the psychological impact of being harmed by care that was intended to help. South Carolina law recognizes emotional distress as a distinct category of compensable harm.
- Diminished quality of life addresses the broader impact of the injury on a patient’s ability to engage in daily activities, relationships, and pursuits that defined their life before negligent care occurred.
- Wrongful death damages are available when hospital negligence causes a patient’s death. Under South Carolina law, the personal representative of the deceased patient’s estate may bring a wrongful death claim on behalf of eligible survivors. This claim may include compensation for funeral and burial expenses, loss of companionship, and other damages recognized under the state’s wrongful death statutes.
Note that South Carolina medical malpractice claims, including those involving hospital negligence, require written pre-suit notice to all intended defendants at least ninety days before a lawsuit can be filed under South Carolina Code Section 15-79-125. These claims also have a shorter statute of limitations than many other personal injury claims. These requirements make early legal involvement essential in any potential hospital negligence matter.
How Hughey Law Firm Supports Injured Patients and Families
Pursuing a hospital negligence claim against a large, well-resourced institution like Grand Strand Medical Center requires specific legal knowledge, access to qualified medical experts, and the ability to litigate a case in court when necessary. At Hughey Law Firm, we handle every aspect of the process, allowing our clients to focus on their recovery and families rather than navigating a complex legal system.
- Thorough medical record reviews: We obtain and analyze the patient’s complete medical record from Grand Strand Medical Center, including physician orders, nursing documentation, medication administration records, operative reports, imaging results, and laboratory findings. Reviewing the full record chronologically allows us to identify where the standard of care was not met and what the clinical consequences were.
- Independent investigation: We independently investigate the circumstances surrounding the adverse outcome, including staffing levels, protocols, and systemic conditions at the hospital that may have contributed to the negligence. We also consider prior incident or complaint history relevant to the specific service line or department involved when establishing the facility’s awareness of a systemic problem.
- Medical expert coordination: South Carolina’s medical malpractice framework requires expert testimony that establishes two things: first, that the care provided fell below the accepted standard, and second, that the departure caused the patient’s harm. We collaborate with qualified medical experts in relevant specialties to develop the support necessary for the case and to meet the requirements of South Carolina law.
- Pre-suit compliance management: Before filing any lawsuit, we ensure full compliance with South Carolina Code Section 15-79-125’s pre-suit notice requirements, managing the timing and documentation of the notice so the claim is not jeopardized on procedural grounds.
- Comprehensive damages assessment: We evaluate the full scope of past and future losses our clients have experienced, including medical costs, income loss, and the personal impact of the injury. This ensures that any legal action pursues the maximum possible compensation.
- Insurance and defense communication: We handle all communications with the insurer and defense attorneys of Grand Strand Medical Center on behalf of our clients so that they are never placed in the position of negotiating with institutional representatives on their own.
- Negotiation and trial capability: We negotiate with the hospital’s insurer and defense counsel from a position of thorough preparation and a genuine willingness to take cases to trial. If a fair resolution cannot be reached, Hughey Law Firm will take the case to a South Carolina civil court. Thanks to our trial experience, every client we represent has access to skilled courtroom representation if their case requires it.
All hospital negligence cases at Hughey Law Firm are handled on a contingency fee basis. You pay no legal fees unless we recover compensation for you. The initial consultation is always free.
Contact a Grand Strand Medical Center Negligence Lawyer Today
If you or a family member has been harmed due to negligent care at the Grand Strand Medical Center in Myrtle Beach, the Hughey Law Firm is prepared to review your case and explain your legal options. We represent patients and families throughout Horry County, the Grand Strand, and South Carolina. We are prepared to put our experience to work for you.
Call (843) 881-8644 for a free consultation, fill out our contact form, or use live chat to speak with our team now. The consultation is free, confidential, and carries no obligation to proceed.
Disclaimer: The information on this page is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is different. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Hiring a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements. Ask us to send you free written information about our qualifications and experience before you decide. The Hughey Law Firm is located in Charleston, South Carolina.