It took Fort Mill more than a decade to get one hospital. Is another now on its way?
A proposal is in place for a new hospital in Fort Mill.
Birmingham, Alabama-based Encompass Health has proposed a new facility, which would be called Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Fort Mill.
A proposed land use amendment related to the new hospital will go to the town planning commission on Sept. 15. It would take a change to an approved mixed use plan, which means Fort Mill Town Council must approve.
“There is no timeline set yet for the project as we have to first obtain approval from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to build the hospital,” said Hillary Carnel, spokesperson for Encompass Health. “We are going through that approval process now.”
Plans are underway for what the new facility might feature.
“The new hospital would offer 39 private patient rooms, a spacious therapy gym with the latest rehabilitation technologies, a dining room, in-house pharmacy, day rooms and a therapy courtyard,” Carnel said.
The proposed hospital would be at Pleasant and Vista roads. It’s part of a larger site that is 157 mostly-vacant acres at Pleasant and Vista. It surrounds Pleasant Knoll Elementary School and Pleasant Knoll Middle School. About eight acres are developed so far for the Fort Mill Legacy apartments. The larger property was annexed into Fort Mill in 2008 and later planned out in a 2014 approval as a mix of school, residential and commercial property.
The plan approved in 2014 included 10,000-50,000 square feet of commercial space and up to 15,000 square feet of retail. It also included up to 931 residential units, some of them dedicated to senior living.
The currently-proposed plan now shows 578 apartments, plus 324 units listed as apartments/commercial/retail to include the up to 80,000 square feet of commercial site requested for the Encompass site. It also includes 246 homes and 167 townhomes.
Penelope Karagounis, town planning director, said the amendment decision coming before the planning commission and town council isn’t on the actual rehab hospital or whether it will happen. It’s about whether a hospital or medical facility should be a permissible use in the mixed-use project.
“This is very preliminary,” she said.
The property owner asked the town for the changes in August. Encompass Health had asked the town about the site, and got a letter in August noting the zoning changes that would be required. That letter indicated town planning staff would likely recommend the changes, which staff did ahead of the coming planning commission meeting.
In requests for zoning changes, the town planning commission hears from the applicant and recommends for or against the plan. Town Council then has to pass three votes to finalize changes.
Encompass has more than 400 sites in 39 states and Puerto Rico. There is one in Rock Hill, and multiple Columbia sites. In August, Encompass announced a new venture on a 49-bed Charleston site.
The 50-bed Rock Hill site, per its website, serves patients in recovery from stroke, amputation and other complex neurological and orthopedic conditions.
The Fort Mill site would be near the proposed spot for a new hotel at Pleasant and Coltharp roads. York County Council still has two votes remaining on the hotel plan.
A new medical facility in Fort Mill is a growing trend as the town population increases. Piedmont Medical Center won the right to build a new Fort Mill hospital early last year.
As Piedmont builds, a new 24-7 freestanding emergency room opened on Gold Hill Road while MUSC announced plans to move hospital beds to high-growth Indian Land. Several smaller medical offices in Fort Mill, of various sizes, have opened in recent years or are still planned.
Karagounis said it’s too early to talk many specifics for the newest proposed hospital. It still would have to go through the state Certificate of Need program, a required step for large healthcare projects in South Carolina. Discussion now is for more of a physical or occupational therapy type hospital rather than the more expansive model Piedmont has planned.
If the town approves zoning changes and an application is submitted and approved with the Certificate of Need, the project still is likely several years from opening.
Encompass began in 1984 and has 136 similar inpatient rehabilitation hospitals nationwide. There are seven South Carolina hospitals, with another under construction in Greenville.
“Our goal is to create a customized care plan designed for each patient’s needs that helps them return to the community at their highest level of independence,” Carnel said.
This story was originally published September 13, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
