(Rendering courtesy of Prisma Health)

Prisma Health plans to build a new $138 million inpatient behavioral health hospital in the Upstate that officials said will take a significant step forward in addressing the region's growing need for enhanced access to cutting-edge behavioral health services.

Prisma hopes to begin site work in spring 2025, pending Certificate of Need approval. Construction is expected to take approximately two years.

The hospital will be supported with $100 million in state funds appropriated to the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) by the state’s General Assembly.

The three-story behavioral health hospital is slated to be built on 46 acres at the corner of U.S. 123 and S.C. 153 in Pickens County.

The 132,430-square-foot facility will be licensed for 112 beds that will replace Prisma Health’s 65-bed Marshall I. Pickens Psychiatric hospital (MIPH) on the Greenville Memorial Hospital campus.

As the only inpatient behavioral health facility in the Upstate to treat children, Prisma will quadruple the number of child and adolescent beds from 10 to 40 with the remaining 72 beds licensed for adults.

“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,” said S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster.

He added, “This project is an important step forward in addressing the statewide need for an expansion of behavioral health services whenever and wherever possible.”

Prisma is completing its architectural and construction documents for the facility and has applied to the state for a Certificate of Need which is required to begin construction.

“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.

He added, “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. 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."

Further, 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.”

The hospital will offer specialized care for children, adolescents, adults, older adults and those adult patients requiring more intensive care. Each patient care unit will include a combination of private and semi-private rooms.

Officials said the pivotal $100 million state funding will be with one-time, non-recurring dollars and is intended to grow psychiatric inpatient and outpatient services that result in additional mental health care capacity for the state.

The most recent State Health Plan showed a need for 211 additional inpatient behavioral health beds statewide.

Officials said the number of patients admitted for psychiatric treatment has been steadily increasing over the past six years in the Upstate, with Pickens, Oconee and Greenville counties’ combined inpatient psychiatric admission rates jumping by nearly 50 percent.

MIPH, which opened in 1969, has limited capacity and can only serve about 1,500 patients per year. 

That means that each year approximately 1,200 patients who come to Upstate Prisma emergency departments needing inpatient psychiatric care must instead be transported to facilities as far as the coast.

Officials said access to inpatient care for children can be especially challenging, with one in five U.S. children having a mental, emotional or behavioral disorder in a given year, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

MIPH, which is licensed for only 10 beds for children and adolescents, is the only hospital in the Upstate that admits psychiatric patients aged 12 or younger.

Many children are referred to other facilities in Columbia and Charleston, creating additional challenges for patients and their families.

The new facility will be licensed for 40 child and adolescent beds.

State Rep. Bruce Bannister, R Greenville, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said, “This project and the expansion of behavioral health services in the Greenville and Upstate community is long overdue." 

He added, "The Prisma Health Marshall I. Pickens Psychiatric Hospital has served Greenville and Upstate families well for decades, and I am thrilled this public-private partnership will not only expand these services but expand access in the modern environment our community deserves.” 

But additional beds are just part of the solution.

Over the past six years in the Upstate, Prisma has quadrupled its number of psychiatrists, advanced practice clinicians and physician trainees (resident and fellow physicians) to increase access to mental health services.

It began a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program in 2019 as well as a second adult psychiatry residency program in Greer in 2020 to help create a local training pipeline and ease the growing national shortage.

The system has also partnered with community groups to provide local education and training opportunities.

In addition to the $138 million behavioral health hospital, Prisma plans to spend approximately $7 million on facility projects for the Greenville Memorial Hospital campus associated with behavioral health services, which include expansion of intensive outpatient programs.