GREENVILLE — Greenville Health System broke ground Wednesday on a $48 million expansion of its Patewood Memorial Hospital campus on Garlington Road, a project that will add four surgical suites and a dedicated outpatient imaging center to the facility that serves as the primary hospital for Greenville’s growing eastside and Woodruff Road corridor.
The expansion responds to a consistent increase in surgical and imaging volume at Patewood, which has seen patient visits grow 22 percent over the past four years as residential development along the Garlington Road and Woodruff Road corridors has accelerated. GHS said the existing surgical capacity at Patewood has been operating at or near maximum utilization during peak periods.
“Patewood was designed for a very different version of this part of Greenville,” said GHS Chief Operating Officer [Name]. “The community around it has grown substantially, and this expansion brings the facility’s capacity in line with the demand.”
The four new surgical suites will be built adjacent to the existing surgical wing on the hospital’s west side, with a connecting corridor to the main patient floor. The suites are designed with enhanced robotic surgery infrastructure, reflecting the health system’s ongoing expansion of minimally invasive procedures that reduce patient recovery time.
The outpatient imaging center, which will occupy a new freestanding building on the north end of the Garlington Road campus, will house two MRI units, a CT scanner, and digital X-ray equipment. GHS said locating imaging in a dedicated outpatient facility will reduce wait times for scheduled scans, which have averaged 8 to 12 days for non-urgent imaging at Patewood.
Construction is being managed by a Greenville-based contractor and is expected to take approximately 22 months. Both the surgical suites and the imaging center are projected to open in early 2028.
The expansion is financed entirely through GHS operating funds and existing capital reserves. No new debt is being issued for the project.
Neighbors along the Garlington Road corridor were notified of construction traffic patterns at a community meeting held at the Patewood campus last month. GHS said construction access will be routed through the hospital’s secondary entrance off Verdae Boulevard to minimize impact on the residential streets west of the campus.