Expanded Behavioral Health Hospital to Replace Marshall Pickens

Observer Reports

Gov. Henry McMaster and other state officials joined with Prisma Health leaders Monday to break ground on Prisma’s $138 million behavioral health hospital, which will double the healthcare system’s inpatient behavioral health capacity in the Upstate.

The three-story, 134,621-square-foot facility, is being built on 46-acres 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 new location is licensed for 112 beds and will replace Prisma’s 65-bed Marshall I. Pickens Hospital, which was 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 in a press release. 

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.