Prisma Health breaks ground on $138M mental health hospital

Prisma Health brass and elected officials tossed shovelfuls of dirt without much concern for where the soil landed in a May 19 ceremony outside Easley to mark the beginning of construction on a $138 million behavioral health hospital.

But the fresh red dirt around them is being moved with a great deal of thought, designers and mental health experts taking full advantage of hills and woods to build a hospital where every patient room looks toward a peaceful forest and the Blue Ridge escarpment beyond.

Setting and design play an important role in caregiving, according to Dr. Karen Lommel, the Robert A. Jolley Jr. Endowed Chair of Psychiatry and Community Health for Prisma Health in the Upstate.

The hospital will double Prisma Health’s capacity for inpatient behavioral health care, creating more access to inpatient services close to home for the Upstate’s burgeoning population and its corresponding growth in health care needs.

“More patients will be able to receive the care they need in their own community, close to friends and family,” Lommel said at the ceremony. “This is really crucial for the recovery of our patients. The special features of this hospital include the location — and I heard many people say just how beautiful this is as they were pulling in. It’s wooded and all of the patient rooms will be facing the wooded portion of the property in the back. We will also have three-season porches on each of the units and outdoor courtyards. This is very, very important. Many studies have shown that innovative design features can actually expedite healing and recovery.”

Dr. Jonathon Gleason, executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Prisma Health, said he looks forward to putting the high-performing team from Marshal I Pickens Hospital into the new setting.

“When I think about that team into what this building is going to be, it’s just amazing to think about the kind of experiences that we’re going to be able to deliver, the trust that that’s going to build in our communities and then what that’s going to lead to in terms of just thriving in our communities,” Gleason said. “This new hospital is going to bring a next level of care here into this community. It is thoughtfully designed as a healing environment. … There’s going to be a lot of features of this building that are based on a lot of current evidence of best practices, a healing and nurturing environment, outdoor courtyards, team member respite area, and the use of a lot of natural light. The strategic location here will reduce the need for a lot of distant patient transfers and that’s really important in behavioral health because it facilitates families coming and being with patients and restoring people not just to a state of health but to their best state of health and we know that family is really important for that.”

The three-story facility, licensed for 112 beds, will replace Prisma’s 65-bed Marshall I. Pickens Hospital, built in 1969. The new hospital is going up on a 46-acre tract off S.C. Highway 153. Construction of the 134,621-square-foot hospital is expected to take two years.

“The foundation of our work to move the needle in health outcomes is trust,” Gleason said. “It’s about building trust with our patients and our communities. It really is the foundation of what we do and what we know is that  if there isn’t trust in the care that is being delivered, then people will simply opt out. And they’ll be left untreated.  … In behavioral I think all of us know that trust is even more critically important. There can be stigma and when there is stigma and there isn’t trust, then there isn’t care. And I think all of us know that when there isn’t care when there’s a behavioral health need, the health outcomes can be truly tragic.”

Prisma Health leaders were joined by Gov. Henry McMaster and state Senate President Thomas Alexander for the groundbreaking.  Also present were Marshall I Pickens Jr. and his daughter. Prisma Health CEO Mark O’Halla thanked the state officials for their support and he thanked Pickens for the work his father and grandfather did to advance behavioral health care in South Carolina.

“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,” O’Halla said.

“By increasing access to inpatient services for both children and adults, we are addressing one of our most pressing health care challenges,” Gov. McMaster said. “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 by the General Assembly. The state funding will be with one-time, non-recurring dollars and is intended to grow psychiatric inpatient and outpatient capacity, according to a news release.

“We believe behavioral health deserves the same innovation, compassion and excellence that we bring to every other aspect of care,” O’Halla said in the news release. “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%, according to Prisma Health. 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 facility will quadruple the number of beds available for adolescents and children to help meet that need, according to Prisma. It will also provide expanded care for adults, including older adults.

During the ceremony, plans were revealed for the hospital’s Sargent-Wilson Wellness Center, 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.

“This much-needed hospital would not be possible without the power of this public-private partnership and all the people behind it,” Lommel said in the release. “Prisma cannot do this work alone. But thanks to incredible state and community support, Prisma will be able to meet the growing mental health needs in our communities.”

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.

Project management for the new hospital is in the hands of JLL. Civil engineering is overseen by Thomas & Hutton with design by Cannon Design. Brasfield & Gorrie is leading construction.