Prisma Health plans new behavioral health hospital in Pickens Co.
(WSPA) – Prisma Health announced plans Thursday for a new $138 million behavioral health hospital in eastern Pickens County.
The 112-bed, 132,430-square-foot hospital will replace the current Marshall I. Pickens Psychiatric Hospital located on the campus of Greenville Memorial Hospital.
Prisma said the new facility will also quadruple the number of beds for children and adolescents from 10 to 40.
The three-story hospital will be built on nearly 46 acres of land along Highway 153 near Old Easley Bridge Road just east of Easley.
Construction of the new facility will be supported by $100 million in state funds provided by the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
"This project is a powerful example of what we can accomplish through public-private partnerships and is a significant and much-needed step forward for our communities and state," said Mark O'Halla, president and CEO of Prisma Health. "By doubling our inpatient capacity and creating a state-of-the-art, healing-centered facility, Prisma is bringing essential behavioral health services closer to home."
Representatives from Prisma Health said inpatient psychiatric admission rates have been increasing in the Upstate over the past six years, jumping nearly 50% in Pickens, Oconee, and Greenville counties.
"This new facility will enable our exceptional team to provide leading-edge care to our patients in an environment the patients deserve," said Dr. Karen Lommel, chair of psychiatry and community health for Prisma Health in the Upstate. "Patients experiencing a mental health crisis deserve expert compassionate care in a healing, nurturing environment. Our new hospital will significantly increase access to this vitally needed care but will also keep families closer to home and their family-friend networks which can itself help in recovery."
Prisma Health said, pending an application to the state for a Certificate of Need, they hope to begin site work in the spring of 2025.
Construction is expected to take about two years to complete.
