Greenville, SC: A Community of Care

Jack Robert Photography

Whether in leadership roles or on the front lines of patient care, the health care professionals in Greenville, SC, are building connections and putting down roots in the community they call home.

Two health care professionals share what they love about living and working in the Greenville region.

Meet Joshua Trout

“I have completely fallen in love with this city,” says Joshua Trout, CEO of Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital. “I have never felt more at home. Everything the city does is full of intentionality, diversity and inclusion. We’re keeping the old-school Greenville alive while also making it modern.”

Trout moved here in early 2021 from his native Pennsylvania, tapped by Encompass Health to complete and open a new 40-bed rehabilitation hospital. Six months later the hospital opened, and it now employs nearly 200 people. 

“We’ve been full since we opened in August 2021,” Trout says. “We’re currently working on our first expansion. We were not expecting to grow as quickly as we did.” 

As CEO of Encompass, Trout says he embraces a philosophy of leading through vulnerability. Plus, he has built that into his team’s culture. 

“It goes beyond servant leadership to talking about my past failures and struggles. My failures are actually what bring out the best of me, so I don’t shy away from them,” he says. “In the health care world, we focus so much on quality of care, which is absolutely important, but by leading with vulnerability, you open up a level of trust and make it easy for people to relate to you. People want to work for you. Then, people want to come to work on Monday morning, and they come to work with a smile. You have better patient satisfaction, better patient outcomes.”

Trout, who has a book coming out this year and serves as a speaker and coach on leadership development and organizational culture, says this approach has made the hospital successful in a very short period of time.

“Our hospital could not have become as successful so quickly without the people who work here and the community supporting us. We are honored to be in Greenville,” he says.

To prospective employees, Trout says, “If you are looking for a place that is stable and has lots of growth potential, a place where you’ll have a voice and be able to make a massive impact on our patients and our local community, you’re here.”

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System

Get to Know Dr. Wayne Davis 

As a family medicine physician with Medical Group of the Carolinas – Family Medicine – Greer, Dr. Wayne Davis says he appreciates working in partnership with his patients of all ages. 

“I like to set collaborative goals with my patients,” Davis says. “I have a plan I want them to follow, but I need their input and buy-in to make it work. I’m happiest when I see their happiness about reaching the goals we set together.” 

After graduating from medical school in Florida, Davis came to the Greenville area for residency. He was then recruited by Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System and has been there for 12 years, including the past eight years at Immediate Care Center – Pelham. In spring 2024, he moved to a new family medicine practice on the campus of Pelham Medical Center. 

“Here, I can continue serving the community by taking care of their chronic needs,” he says. 

Davis says Greenville offers a wide variety of activities for visitors and residents. He engages with the community in ways that extend beyond his clinic, including serving as a physician for the Greenville Triumph professional soccer team and medical director for the BMW Charity Pro-Am golf tournament. 

“As medical director of the BMW tournament, I take care of the players as well as any attendees who may have unexpected health issues,” Davis says. 

For the Greenville Triumph, he serves with other health care professionals to attend to players’ needs. “Through these and other activities, I work to promote health in the community,” he says. 

Davis says he appreciates that Spartanburg Regional is physician-led. “That’s important, because you want people who are working in the field to be the ones making decisions about how to best help patients,” he says. 

For both current residents and newcomers looking for health care, he says the right fit is important. “Spartanburg Regional does seem to be that fit for a lot of people,” Davis says. “We try to do the right thing and build their trust.”