Not-for-profit Prisma Health, based in Greenville, South Carolina, has stayed out of the news since it was formed by the merger of Greenville Health System and Palmetto Health. That changed in March, with the announcement that it was adding three hospitals operated by LifePoint Health. Financial terms of the asset purchase agreement weren’t disclosed.
Prisma Health operates 18 hospitals around the state, with 2,984 beds and more than 300 physician practice sites. The merger between Greenville Health and Palmetto Health was first announced in 2017, as several mid-sized health systems began to form larger regional systems. The merger became official in January 2019.
LifePoint Health, once publicly traded, is now a portfolio company of Apollo Global Management. It’s divesting three hospitals: KershawHealth (123 beds) in Camden, South Carolina, and Providence Health (332 beds) and Providence Health-Northeast (74 beds), both in Columbia, as well as a freestanding emergency room in Fairfield County.
The facilities will be integrated into Prisma Health-Midlands.
KershawHealth was founded in 1913 as Camden Hospital and joined LifePoint in 2018. Over the last century, it has evolved into a comprehensive health system with locations in Camden, Elgin, Lugoff and Kershaw. These include the medical center at Camden, an outpatient center and urgent care clinic at Elgin, West Wateree Medical Complex, a sleep diagnostics center, and physical therapy services at Kershaw.
Founded in 1938, Providence Health, which LifePoint has owned since 2016, serves Columbia and surrounding communities through two full-service hospitals, one freestanding emergency room and a network of physician practices, sleep centers, cardiac rehab facilities, and outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy locations across the region.
Prisma Health–Midlands operates under the Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) issued by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control in 1997. On February 28, 2020, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control updated Prisma’s COPA to address the addition of the Providence Health and KershawHealth assets.
