(Rendering provided: Prisma Health behavioral health hospital.)

Prisma Health leaders were joined by Gov. Henry McMaster and state officials to officially break ground May 19, 2025, on Prisma’s new behavioral health hospital, a $138 million state-of-the-art facility that will double the health-care system’s inpatient behavioral health capacity in the Upstate.

 The three-story facility is being built on a 46-acre tract off S.C. 153 near Easley. 

Construction on the hospital, made possible by $100 million in state funds, is expected to take approximately two years.

The 134,621-square-foot facility is licensed for 112 beds and will replace Prisma’s 65-bed Marshall I. Pickens Hospital, built in 1969.

“Thanks to this extraordinary investment from the State of South Carolina, we are doubling our inpatient behavioral health capacity and creating a state-of-the-art healing-centered hospital — right here in the Upstate — that will bring essential services closer to the people who need them most,” said Prisma Health CEO and President Mark O’Halla.

“This project represents a transformational investment in the future of behavioral health in South Carolina,” McMaster said. “By increasing access to inpatient services for both children and adults, we are addressing one of our most pressing health care challenges. Prisma Health’s new facility is a shining example of how strategic public-private partnerships can deliver impactful care for our people.”

The public-private partnership is 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 pivotal state funding will be with one-time, non-recurring dollars and is intended to grow psychiatric inpatient and outpatient capacity.

Said O’Halla, “We believe behavioral health deserves the same innovation, compassion, and excellence that we bring to every other aspect of care. This groundbreaking isn’t just about construction, it’s about transformation. We are working to transform health care for the people and communities we serve.”

The need for inpatient psychiatric treatment has climbed in the Upstate in recent years, with the combined admission rates from Pickens, Oconee and Greenville counties jumping by nearly 50 percent.

Officials said that last year more than 1,000 behavioral health patients, including children as young as 6, were transported to facilities as far as the coast because there weren’t enough licensed psychiatric beds in the Upstate.

The new hospital will significantly expand access, reducing the need for distant patient transfers and enabling patients to stay closer to their families and crucial support networks, said Dr. Karen Lommel, the Robert A. Jolley Jr. Endowed Chair of Psychiatry and Community Health for Prisma Health in the Upstate.

Lommel, an adult and child-adolescent psychiatrist, is the medical director of Prisma’s behavioral health hospital. She is also an emergency medicine physician with Prisma.

Officials said the new facility will quadruple the number of beds available for adolescents and children to help meet the critical community need. It will also provide expanded care for adults, including older adults.

Officials said patient care at the new hospital will be delivered in a uniquely healing, nurturing environment.

They said its innovative design will feature best practices such as patient-centric settings, natural lighting, views of nature and even access to secure outdoor courtyards. Studies show such behavioral health designs with natural light can help with sleep regulation, improved mood and time to recovery.

Lommel envisions the new facility becoming a behavioral health resource that provides care to patients but also helps the community better understand mental health and mental illness.

Another step toward that goal, the hospital’s Sargent-Wilson Wellness Center, was unveiled at the groundbreaking.

Made possible by a $1 million gift from the Sargent Foundation, the center will provide patients recreation and educational programming but also serve as a resource hub for community members.

For Sargent trustees Teresa and Dr. Bob Wilson, the support is personal, following the loss of a family friend to mental health challenges.

Construction of the new hospital, along with the recent tripled capacity of Prisma’s outpatient day treatment services in the Upstate through its new Behavioral Health & Wellness Pavilion, are part of Prisma’s $143 million expansion of outpatient and inpatient mental health services in the Upstate.

Prisma Health is a private nonprofit health company with over 32,000 team members, 19 acute and specialty hospitals, 3,131 licensed beds, 320 practice sites, and more than 5,900 employed and independent clinicians across its clinically integrated inVio Health Network.