York County to get another hospital to serve booming area. ‘You can see the need’

York County is getting another new hospital, and a first for the fast-growing unincorporated Lake Wylie area.

Gastonia, North Carolina-based CaroMont Health intends to build what it calls a neighborhood hospital in Lake Wylie by 2031. The not-for-profit healthcare company bought more than 40 acres at S.C. 557 and Glenn Brandon Road this month for $6 million.

The site is just west of The Journey at Lake Wylie church.

The new hospital will have emergency and inpatient care. The emergency department will have board-certified ER physicians. There will be short-stay and observation units, surgical and endoscopy services, full-service imaging and lab work. The hospital is designed with the idea that most visits don’t require intensive care or highly complex services.

For medical cases that do, patients would be referred to CaroMont Regional Medical Center in Gastonia. The Lake Wylie facility is the second neighborhood hospital announced by CaroMont in recent months, joining one in Cleveland County, N.C..

CaroMont has had physicians in the Lake Wylie area for two decades. The provider has locations for cardiology, endocrinology, family medicine, primary care, neurology, obstetrics, pediatrics and urgent care.

“We are not arriving in York County,” said CaroMont President and CEO Chris Peek. “We have been here, and we intend to be here for decades to come.”

Adding emergency services and hospital care is the next natural step, Peek said, as the company looked to match the pace of development with growth in the community.

“In York County, you can see the need in the growth along Highway. 557 and in the families who drive past our practices every day but leave the area for hospital care,” Peek said.

Four years ago, York County had one hospital. Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill had been the only provider since it opened in 1983. Then Piedmont, rebranded this year as Piedmont Medical Network, opened a Fort Mill hospital in 2022 after decades of debate and legal challenges related to South Carolina healthcare rules.

The Certificate of Need program limited healthcare providers adding major facilities or infrastructure, including hospitals, by requiring lengthy approvals. Several competing providers in Fort Mill led to years of court rulings before Piedmont ultimately prevailed.

South Carolina repealed the Certificate of Need program three years ago, with a restriction on hospital construction fully sunsetting at the end of this year. That change, along with rapid population growth across the Rock Hill region, created a rush of new medical facilities.

Piedmont opened a standalone emergency room on Gold Hill Road in Fort Mill in 2020, and a similar one in Indian Land this year. Piedmont also has one planned for Lake Wylie.

The Medical University of South Carolina has a $300 million hospital and medical office building campus under construction on Charlotte Highway in Indian Land. The hospital is set to open in 2028.

Charlotte-based Atrium Health confirmed plans in December for a $450 million hospital and medical office building project in Fort Mill. Atrium aims for a 2029 opening near the Masons Bend subdivision and Catawba River.

Then, this summer, North Carolina-based Novant Health announced plans for a $300 medical complex off Interstate 77 in Rock Hill, at Exit 81.

All the new medical facilities come in an area that’s on an upward growth trend. Lancaster County is the Charlotte region’s fastest-growing county since 2020, while Fort Mill is by far the region’s fastest-growing town.

York and Lancaster counties are projected to have nearly 590,000 combined residents by 2043, according to projections from the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office. That total would be a 55.6% increase from the 2020 population.

This story was originally published September 16, 2026 at 8:00 AM with the headline “York County to get another hospital to serve booming area. ‘You can see the need’.”