A beam bearing the names of more than 100 ECU Health staff members was hoisted to its rightful place on June 18 to mark a tangible step in the construction of a behavioral health hospital to serve the region.
Construction began on the 144-bed facility in Greenville in November, and as of last week crews had installed nearly all of the required cement and steel framework for the project according to Tommy Williams, a project manager with Thomas Construction Group, the hospital’s general contractor. The hospital will sit at 2280 MacGregor Downs Road.
The facility is on track to open in summer of 2025. It is a joint project by ECU Health and Acadia Healthcare, a Tennessee-based mental health care provider with more than 250 facilities in almost 40 states and Puerto Rico.
The beam signed by staff will be visible in the facility’s gymnasium. Glenn Simpson, ECU Health system service line administrator for behavioral health, said the facility also will boast walking trails and courtyards to treat patients in pleasant surroundings.
“For me today is the culmination of almost 15 years of hoping, strategizing and advocating that we could bring a state of the art psychiatric facility at ECU Health to serve our communities here in eastern North Carolina,” Simpson said. “For those of you, and there’s a lot here, who will have the opportunity to work in this facility starting next summer, today is only the beginning of the excitement.”
The hospital will be the third largest behavioral health facility in the state according to Todd Hickey, chief strategy officer for ECU Health.
Simpson said the new facility has 24 committed beds for children and adolescents, a population that is currently not served by ECU Health. Right now if beds are unavailable in Greenville patients are sent to Ahoskie. Children are sent to Jacksonville, Raleigh, Winston-Salem or even as far as Asheville to receive treatment, he said.
“You can imagine having a 75 mile drive to see your loved one,” Simpson said.
The new facility will have a specialized co-occurring unit for patients suffering both mental illness and substance use disorder, which Simpson said “go hand in hand.” That unit will have an onsite detoxification unit for recovery. The facility will also expand the health system’s psychiatric medicine unit for patients with a psychiatric diagnosis and another physical ailment which requires nursing care in a hospital setting.
Right now ECU Health operates 52 beds in Greenville, Simpson said. Existing staff will have the option to transfer to the new hospital once it opens. The health system will hire nursing, nursing assistant and allied health positions in the months prior to the facility opening.
“What we’re going to do is that this hospital will open softly and we will continue to have services so it is very smooth transition for the patients and the team members as well,” Simpson said.
Mary Branch-Ellis, a registered nurse in ECU Health’s psychiatric unit, said she has considered taking a supplemental role at the new hospital. She began her career in 1981 when ECU Health Medical Center was Pitt County Memorial Hospital.
“I’m excited by all of the different activities and therapies that are going to be offered here,” Branch-Ellis said. “It’s wonderful to be a part of it and be invested. I’ve worked so many years in mental health, been such an advocate for patients, and now we are seeing this state-of-the-art facility being built.”
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