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COLUMBIA — The University of South Carolina plans to build a highly specialized hospital promising “world-class treatment” and rehabilitation for strokes, dementia and other diseases affecting the brain and nervous system.
The university board’s finance committee on Friday unanimously approved an agreement that provides the first $10 million toward what’s expected to be a $350 million project. The initial funding comes from the state’s Medicaid agency for preliminary architecture and engineering work.
Approval by the full board is expected later Friday.
University officials will ask legislators for $150 million in next year’s state budget toward South Carolina’s first hospital specializing in neurological care. It’s unclear where the other $190 million would come from.
USC officials tout the future hospital as a first-of-its kind in the entire Southeast. Plans call for 112 to 140 beds offering patients advanced neurological and neurosurgery treatments as well as rehabilitation for trauma, stroke, cancer, epilepsy and other chronic conditions.
It will be roughly 250,000 to 300,000 square feet, the university’s architect, Derek Gruner, told the finance committee.
And it will be built next to USC’s future, $300 million School of Medicine in downtown Columbia’s BullStreet District.
That project is on budget. Construction on the medical campus is slated to start in February and be fully completed in fall 2027, Gruner said in an update to trustees.
USC building $30M brain health center for Alzheimer’s, dementia treatment
Also in the works nearby is USC’s $30 million Brain Health Center, an outpatient treatment and research facility expected to open in fall 2025.
That project also involves at least six satellite clinics in more rural areas of the state to diagnose patients and increase access.
“As USC expands its efforts to provide the highest quality medical education to South Carolina students and serve the state’s health care needs, building a single location for neurological treatment and rehabilitation is a vital next step,” said USC President Michael Amiridis. “This is a tremendous opportunity to address a critical gap in health care for brain-related conditions, not only for our state, but for the entire Southeast.”
USC officials point to statistics on the state’s need for neurological care.
Strokes, which occur when blood flow to the brain is disrupted, were the fifth-highest cause of death in South Carolina in 2022, when 3,100 people died due to stroke. That year, 2,429 South Carolinians died of Alzheimer’s disease, the seventh-highest cause of death, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Heart disease tops the list.)
The Alzheimer’s Association predicts by next year some 120,000 South Carolinians will be living with Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia.
Limited options in South Carolina for neurological treatment and rehabilitation often forces patients and their families to travel to other states for care, according to USC.
“The planned USC hospital would make world-class treatment available right in the heart of South Carolina, while reducing costs for patients,” reads a news release on the plans.
Thad Westbrook, USC’s board chairman, called the hospital “the most impactful project in the history of the university, particularly for the quality of life of South Carolinians.
“Our citizens would be able to get the best quality of care in their backyard,” he said in a statement.
The announcement comes amid a collective effort by all three of South Carolina’s research universities to improve the detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.