Greenville Health, Palmetto forming biggest S.C. system

Greenville (S.C.) Health System has agreed to a merger with Palmetto Health to create the largest hospital system in South Carolina.

The new health system would operate 13 hospitals and serve 1.2 million patients annually, Greenville CEO Michael Riordan said, adding that the two systems don’t overlap much.

Riordan will be co-CEO of the new system with his counterpart at Columbia-based Palmetto, Charles Beaman Jr. The system will have combined revenue of about $4 billion, Riordan said.

With the merger, half of South Carolinians will be within 15 minutes of a hospital or ambulatory site in the new system.

Greenville, which runs six hospitals, has been on the financial rebound since early 2016, according to a recent report by Fitch Ratings. The system suffered a $15 million operating loss in the first four months of its fiscal 2016 ended Jan. 31—reflecting a mild flu season and the costs of converting to an electronic health record system, according to the report.