What will Fort Mill’s new hospital look like? The discussion has started.

The coming Fort Mill hospital is just a matter of time -- after 15 years waiting. The critical minutes patients will save having it closer to their homes, the months of expected site plans and construction are on the horizon.

Plus, there’s the longer view of the hospital itself.

“It’s going to need to stand the test of time,” said town planning commission member Matthew Lucarelli.

Piedmont Medical Center officials met Tuesday night with the planning commission to talk aesthetics for Fort Mill Medical Center. Last February a state supreme court decision allowed Piedmont to build the Fort Mill hospital after more than a decade of litigation between Piedmont, Atrium Health and Novant Health.

A formal application to the the town for construction should come in May. Construction then may take 18-24 months.

“We’re finally getting to a place where we’ve got a green light to build a hospital in this community,” said Mark Nosacka, Piedmont CEO.

The meeting Tuesday night, and likely conversations to follow, focus on how the hospital will look.

The aim is to have something the planning commission would approve by the time official appearance review comes up this spring. Planning commission members say the bar is high.

“I’ve lived here my whole life,” said planning commission member Ben Hudgins. “I know that the expectations of the town, it’s much anticipated. There’s a lot of buzz about this for many, many years.”

Commission members point to Kingsley, just up the road from the hospital site at S.C. 160 and U.S. 21 Bypass. Kingsley added character and style with its architecture, members say.

“There’s going to be a lot of attention on this project,” Hudgins said.

The hospital property also sits just across from one of the best-known Fort Mill institutions, further raising the bar.

“When I moved to Fort Mill the Peach Stand was always kind of like the signature, ‘OK I know where you’re at now,’” Lucarelli said. “For this to be right across the street, and plus with the growth.”

Planning commission member Hynek Lettang believes a quality building on a prominent corner in town would serve Piedmont well too, promoting its brand.

“We kind of expect, I think, a nice really representative cornerstone building for the organization,” Lettang said.

Project leaders Tuesday night mentioned Kingsley in discussing how the hospital appearance will tie into the surrounding areas. They plan complementary materials, but haven’t settled on exteriors. Nosacka said those conversations are the reason his team met with the town Tuesday and he wants a quality product both the hospital and town can enjoy.

Yet, he said, design needs to follow substance, and Piedmont won’t overpay to have the shiniest building at the expense of hiring the best doctors and nurses, and providing the best equipment.

“We’re not going to spend our top dollar on the exterior,” Nosacka said.

What’s coming

There’s a working plan, but it could change prior to May. For now Piedmont eyes a three-story hospital at about 200,000 square feet. Adjacent to it would be a four-story, roughly 80,000-square-foot medical office. The hospital will have 100 beds.

Preliminary maps show green space behind the intersection leading into a large parking area with access off both main highways. The S.C. 160 access lines up with the entrance to Peachtree Plaza, the former grocery store shopping center opposite the highway. The U.S. 21 Bypass side shows a second entrance toward the back end of the 41-acre property.

The new connector road between the parking lot nearest the intersection and the hospital has a semicircle drive entrance to the main facility, which is right in the middle. The hospital and medical building sit almost center of the overall site with several parking lots to the outside. The hospital itself looks like a cross between a jigsaw puzzle piece and pixelated U.S. map.

“Hospitals are always oddly shaped, because you kind of start in the middle and say, where do people have to walk?” Nosacka said. “It’s not like you build a square and fit everybody into it.”

Piedmont bought the site in 2006 for more than $11 million. Plenty changed since, but Nosacka believes his company has the right fit for a hospital both of today and tomorrow.

“We think we’ve got a layout that really sort of works in today’s healthcare market,” he said.

Where the sickest go

Healthcare in the Fort Mill area changed within the past week, let alone 15 years. Piedmont opened a new freestanding emergency room on Gold Hill Road the day prior to officials meeting with the planning commission. That facility saw a dozen patients the first day.

“Instantly you’ve got people getting care, closer to home,” Nosacka said.

Other companies have added or plan to add major medical facilities in Fort Mill and Indian Land, from outpatient services to a hospital in Indian Land. Nosacka said the work done at hospitals today isn’t what it was when Piedmont battled with other hospital systems more than a decade ago to serve Fort Mill.

“The last 15 years we’ve had this dramatic shift to the outpatient arena,” he said. “Care that used to only be provided in a hospital is now moving out to those areas.”

Specialty surgery centers, physician offices, expanded clinics and even telemedicine have evolved healthcare. Nosacka said his charge is futuristic thinking to plan what the hospital of today and tomorrow needs. The Fort Mill site will have an emergency and operating rooms. It will have OB and neonatal care.

Other services are to be determined. Piedmont isn’t looking to add a trauma unit to the one it already has at its Rock Hill hospital, and heart surgeries could remain in Rock Hill. Medical experts and the community will determine the exact list of services offered in Fort Mill.

For Nosacka, himself a Fort Mill resident, the coming facility will provide extensive community benefit through emergency medicine, intensive care, surgery and other services.

“Hospitals are going to be the place where the sickest continue to go,” he said.

This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 12:30 PM with the headline "What will Fort Mill’s new hospital look like? The discussion has started.."