Prisma planning to build a $138M hospital in the SC Upstate. Here’s when and where

As part of an expansive effort to broaden psychiatric care in the Upstate, Prisma Health is planning a $138 million inpatient behavioral health hospital in Pickens County.

It will replace the much smaller Marshall Pickens Hospital, opened in 1969 on the Greenville Memorial Hospital campus. Marshall Pickens would be demolished, but no details about what the site would be used for are available, Prisma spokesperson Sandy Dees said.

Marshall Pickens is immediately next door to the main hospital.

Prisma must first obtain a certificate of need from South Carolina Department of Public Health, but expects to begin site work in spring 2025 with completion in two years.

The three-story hospital will be built on 46 acres at the corner of U.S. 123 and S.C. 153 in Easley.

It will have 112 beds compared to Marshall Pickens’ 65. Also, the number of child and adolescent beds will increase from 10 to 40.

The state has agreed to chip in $100 million in funding.

The State Health Plan in 2024 put the need for more psychiatric beds in the state at 211.

“South Carolina is no stranger to the behavioral health crisis sweeping our nation, and the inpatient and outpatient services in our state to support our citizens are woefully insufficient,” Gov. Henry McMaster said in a news release.

He called the project an important step toward addressing more behavioral health services.

Mark O’Halla, president and CEO of Prisma Health, said state funding was essential because the hospital will lose money.

“As a safety-net provider, Prisma Health is committed to caring for all patients, regardless of their ability to pay, which means operating the facility with an annual financial loss,” he said. “This project is only possible due to the state’s investment, which enables us to meet the growing need for behavioral health care in our communities.”

“This type of public-private partnership is how South Carolina will continue to close the gap in behavioral health care,” S.C. Speaker of the House Murrell Smith said.

“The increase in space and services will help to fill the gap in available behavioral health services across South Carolina and will alleviate the stress on local and law enforcement resources that not having access to this care creates,” he said.

Prisma Health reported that the number of patients admitted for psychiatric treatment in Greenville, Pickens and Oconee counties has steadily increased over the past six years, growing by nearly 50%.

Plus, some 1,200 patients a year who come to Upstate Prisma emergency departments needing psychiatric care must be transported to facilities as far as the coast.

Children are often referred to hospitals in Columbia and Charleston, Prisma said.

One in five U.S. children have a mental, emotional or behavioral disorder in a given year, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Prisma said in a news release it has quadrupled the number of psychiatrists, advanced practice clinicians and physician trainees (resident and fellow physicians) during the past six years.

It has a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program and two adult psychiatry residency programs.

Prisma also will spend approximately $7 million at the Greenville Memorial Hospital campus for behavioral health services, including expanding intensive outpatient programs.

Greenville County has two private psychiatric hospitals, Carolina Center Behavioral Health and Springbrook Behavioral Health.