Five Forks is getting its own emergency room, with Bon Secours set to break ground on a freestanding 24-hour center that hospital leaders say is designed to keep up with rapid growth and take pressure off crowded ERs across the Upstate.
The compact facility, planned for 2814 Woodruff Road in Greenville County, is expected to offer faster access to emergency care for nearby neighborhoods without a full hospital drive. Inside, clinicians will have trauma-capable exam rooms and on-site imaging so they can diagnose and treat many conditions on the spot instead of sending patients across town.
What The New Five Forks ER Will Include
The project carries a price tag of about $23 million and will come in at roughly 13,000 square feet, according to the Greenville Journal. Plans call for nine exam rooms, including a dedicated trauma room, plus CT and X-ray equipment.
Matt Caldwell, president of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, told the outlet the expansion is meant to keep pace with population growth and rising ER volumes in the area. The building was expected to be complete by spring 2026, giving nearby residents a new round-the-clock emergency option along a stretch of Woodruff Road that has seen steady development.
How The Freestanding ER Is Supposed To Work
Bon Secours describes the Five Forks site as a full-service emergency department in miniature. The health system says the center will be staffed by emergency medicine providers and equipped to stabilize higher-acuity patients before transfer when needed.
In a system announcement, Bon Secours said the new location is designed to "diagnose and treat the same types of emergencies and illnesses that are seen in our hospital-based ERs." The idea is to bring that level of care closer to where people actually live, without having to build an entire hospital campus at every busy crossroads.
Bon Secours’ Bigger Expansion Moves
The Five Forks build is part of a broader push by Bon Secours Mercy Health to add capacity in growing markets. In Newport News, the system recently started construction on a $200 million, four-story patient tower at Mary Immaculate Hospital that will roughly double ER capacity and expand labor-and-delivery and ICU space, WHRO reported.
Hospital leaders there said the larger tower is intended to shorten response times across the Peninsula. The expansion will open in phases through 2028, reflecting the same basic pressure driving the Five Forks project: more people, more emergencies, and a finite number of beds.
Why ERs Are Popping Up Closer To Home
Health systems across the Southeast have been adding emergency capacity in smaller, neighborhood-level sites as a way to ease congestion at flagship hospitals and trim ambulance travel times. Grady Health System's new freestanding emergency department in south Fulton is one recent example of that trend, Axios reported, aimed at communities that have been left with fewer nearby hospital beds.
Supporters say these satellite ERs can keep people from getting stuck in long central-hospital waits for issues that still need urgent attention. Critics point out that they still require experienced staff and serious investment, which can be a tall order when hospitals are already juggling workforce shortages and rising costs.
The initial clip about Bon Secours' Five Forks plan was shared via a syndicated video on Atlanta News First, which credited FOX Carolina's Anna Arinder.
Bon Secours and local outlets have said they will post construction schedules and updates as work progresses. We reached out to Bon Secours for additional comment and will update this story if the system provides a firm ribbon-cutting date.
