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FORT MILL, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – “I have never been in pain like that in my life.” Charles Cornell is celebrating his birthday today — a day he may not have seen without Fort Mill’s new 100-bed hospital open to the public. “Cause they said what happened was my heart had given a couple of clots that had blocked the blood flow to my kidneys. My left kidney,” Cornell said. 

With the facility closer to Fort Mill and Tega Cay neighbors — it could help save more lives. A ride from Fort Mill to Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill–is roughly 25 minutes.

“Yeah definitely a chance that I might not have been able to make it,” Cornell said. 

But not many neighbors feel the same way Cornell does.

Facebook comments from folks in the area say “This new hospital is 10 minutes away from me… Still driving to CLT.” “I will still drive out of the city as long as I am able to drive.”

Jamey Harley was a nurse for over 6 years at Piedmont Rock Hill. She says quicker doctor care is critical in cases of emergency like Cornell’s.

“Anytime you’re going through any kind of medical emergency be it major or minor it’s always better to have help closer by, I think this is going to enable us to serve our community better definitely,” says Harley. 

“We’re not going to be all things to all people, but we are going to be concerned about all people who come to us, and everybody who comes to us we’re going to try and give them state-of-the-art, high-quality safe care and let that be our connection to them,” Piedmont CEO Mark Nosacka.

Nosacka says they looked at all of the demographics in this community and the families that were moving here and looked at the cross-section of health care services they needed. 

“So, we took those 100 beds and essentially apportioned them to different kinds of services. We just opened our second emergency room here in Fort Mill, we opened up a 10-bed ICU, and we’ve got the state-of-the-art women’s center that we call “The Nest”. We have medical-surgical beds, we have 6 operating rooms, Cath lab, and a high technology center that supports surgeons who are able to provide expert surgery here.” 

Piedmont will continue to do brain, heart, and accredited trauma rooms in Rock Hill (300 beds) where they have many employees and doctors to deal with those complicated conditions. 

“We expect to grow with this community,” Nosacka said. 

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