Due to a decline in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the Upstate, Prisma Health will no longer use its North Greenville Hospital as a dedicated COVID-19 unit, the health system announced on Thursday, April 22. Prisma will re-open the long-term acute-care unit at the hospital and plans to expand a primary care clinic where it formerly held an emergency department.
“I’m very grateful for the extraordinary care provided by the team members to patients at North Greenville Hospital during this long pandemic year. They have provided exceptional care under exceptionally difficult circumstances,” said Dr. Wendell James, chief clinical officer for Prisma Health in the Upstate, in a release. “While the number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients needing intensive care has decreased and stabilized, we know that COVID-19 is still with us. Being able to close this one COVID-19 unit is just a small victory of many victories yet to come.”
One adult primary care walk-in clinic and a pediatrics clinic are currently open on the North Greenville Hospital campus. The adult clinic will be incorporated into the new one. The new clinic will be triple the size of the current one and will expand its hours during the week and weekends. Cardiologists and neurologists will be available on-site as well.
“Our long-term hope is to provide much-broader access to primary care and outpatient specialty care services to the North Greenville community for adults as well as children,” said James.
North Greenville Hospital had transitioned into a COVID-19 dedicated unit back in March 2020. It will continue to have one area that will be ready for COVID-19 patients in case a surge of coronavirus cases emerges in the Upstate, according to Prisma.
Prisma has seen about 100 inpatient COVID-19 cases a day over the last several weeks — lower than the peak of 550 in January 2021. The health system has cared for more than 9,000 COVID-19 inpatients, according to the release.
“While this is a significant decrease in the number of inpatients, we must continue to stress to our community about the importance of remaining vigilant, even as vaccinations continue to expand and vaccine availability continues to improve,” James said.
