Hilton Head Hospital and Urgent Care

Call 911 for any medical emergency. On Hilton Head, 911 is answered by Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue’s own dispatch center, and Fire Rescue runs the island’s paramedic ambulances. Inside Sea Pines, call 911 first and then Sea Pines Security at (843) 671-7170, open 24 hours, whose patrol cars carry defibrillators.

On the beach, look for the nearest numbered beach marker post at the dunes and give the dispatcher that number: marker 1 is at the Sea Pines end and the numbers rise every tenth of a mile up the island. In summer, the lifeguards on the stands radio 911 directly. For a swallowed medicine or a child who got into the cleaning supplies, Poison Control is 1-800-222-1222, day or night.

• Urgent care fits sprains, cuts that need stitches, ear and sinus infections, sunburn, rashes, jellyfish and stingray stings, fishhooks, mild fevers and stomach bugs, while a clinic is open.

• The ER is for chest pain, trouble breathing, stroke signs, heavy bleeding, head injuries, broken bones that are out of place, near-drowning, and anything serious after the clinics close.

• Call 911 if the person cannot be moved safely, is unresponsive, or is on the beach and hurt badly.

After 8 p.m. on weekdays, 5 p.m. on weekends, every clinic on the island is closed and the hospital ER is the only option. For a minor question at night, a telehealth visit from your own insurer or MUSC Health Virtual Care, open to anyone in South Carolina, can save the drive; check that it can prescribe across state lines if you are visiting.

The nearest hospital off the island is Coastal Carolina Medical Center in Hardeeville, still known as Coastal Carolina Hospital, about 30 minutes from the bridges near I-95. Novant Health owns it along with Hilton Head Medical Center. For serious trauma, the region’s Level I center is Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, 45 minutes to an hour away. Beaufort Memorial Hospital, in Beaufort, is about an hour north.

Bluffton has no hospital with beds yet. It has two freestanding 24-hour emergency rooms, Novant Health Tidewatch and Novant Health Bluffton, which are closer than the island hospital for anyone staying in Bluffton, Sun City or Moss Creek. Beaufort Memorial expects to open a 28-bed Bluffton hospital by the end of 2026, and Novant plans a 50-bed one around 2028. Our Bluffton urgent care guide has the Bluffton clinics.

Wheelchairs, scooters, walkers and hospital beds can be delivered to a Hilton Head rental, so nobody has to pack them. Book a week or two ahead in summer. For the sand, see our beach wheelchairs guide, which covers the free chairs at the Town’s beach parks and the accessible beach accesses.

For a prescription, the island has two CVS and two Walgreens stores, pharmacies in Publix, Harris Teeter, Kroger and Walmart, and three independents; Hilton Head Island pharmacies has every one with its pharmacy hours. No pharmacy near Hilton Head is open 24 hours.

For a toothache or a broken crown on vacation, call a Hilton Head dentist first: urgent care can treat the pain and an infection but cannot repair a tooth, and many dental offices hold same-day slots for emergencies. All three walk-in clinics treat children, and Main Street Medical is also a family practice for adults and kids.

For property managers and owners: this is the page guests need when something goes wrong, so put the nearest clinic, ER and pharmacy for each property in the welcome book. By area:

• Sea Pines, Forest Beach, Coligny and Shipyard: Sea Pines Circle Immediate Care; CVS Pope Avenue (store to midnight) and Walgreens Island Crossing; Hilton Head Pharmacy, which delivers free on the island.

• Palmetto Dunes, Shelter Cove and Port Royal: Novant Health Urgent Care (to 8 p.m. weekdays); the Kroger pharmacy at Shelter Cove.

• Hilton Head Plantation, Indigo Run and Main Street: the hospital ER; Main Street Medical; Burke’s (open Sunday) and the Publix Festival Centre pharmacy (to 9 p.m. weekdays).

Add the property’s nearest beach marker number to the fridge sheet for 911 calls, and send guests who need a wheelchair, scooter or hospital bed the equipment companies above before they arrive: all three deliver.