Just one year after FirstHealth Richmond Memorial closed its Palmer Hinson Care Center, the hospital is in the early planning stages for the construction of a new, 51-bed nursing facility in Richmond County.

Monday began a Certificate of Need review period for FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital for this new facility.

The new facility will be operated by the UHS-Pruitt Corporation, which has nursing homes and other care facilities in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

UHS-Pruitt has been in business for 40 years and has more than 70 post-acute, skilled nursing and assisted living locations, as well as an array of supplementary resources including home health care, end-of-life care, rehabilitation, veteran care and consultative pharmaceutical services.

Representatives for UHS-Pruitt and FirstHealth could not be reached by the phone before presstime, but Sarah Maret Haislip, health planner for UHS-Pruitt e-mailed this statement to the Daily Journal:

“Richmond Memorial Hospital had determined that it was in the best interests of the organization and the community for it to focus on its core mission —the delivery or acute inpatient services. To ensure the continued availability of skilled nursing services, the hospital sought a partner with whom it could work to build, and subsequently operate, a new state-of-the-art skilled nursing facility. Toward that end, a “development agreement” with UHS-Pruitt ... was executed. The new, modern facility will provide a comfortable, home-like atmosphere, state-of-the-art equipment, and a large number of private accommodations for the community.

First Health announced in January 2009 that it would be closing the Palmer Hinson Center because of a decline in patient demand for the center’s rehabilitative services. The hospital once consisted of 26 beds for long-term care, 25 for rehabilitative care and 99 acute care beds and was located on the second floor of the hospital.

Staff writer Eren Tataragasi can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or at etataragasi@yourdailyjournal.com.