Mercy Health – Youngstown and Lifepoint Behavioral Health, a business unit of Lifepoint Health, announced that they have entered into a joint venture partnership to build and operate a new inpatient behavioral health hospital in the Mahoning Valley.  

The Mercy Health Behavioral Hospital will be a 75,000-square-foot, 72-bed hospital, providing inpatient services for adults struggling with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, substance use disorder and other mental health illnesses. This new facility will be structurally designed to create a therapeutic environment for patients, featuring open, airy spaces with amenities that include spacious patient rooms, community areas, outside courtyards and state-of-the-art clinical spaces to support the needs of patients and families. Lifepoint Behavioral Health will manage the day-to-day operations of the inpatient behavioral health hospital. 

“We are excited to grow our partnership with Lifepoint Health through its behavioral health division as we again expand access to high-quality acute specialty care for our patients throughout the Mahoning Valley,” said John Luellen, MD, market president of Mercy Health – Lorain and Youngstown. “This hospital will broaden Mercy Health’s ability to provide much-needed inpatient behavioral health care and help us further our mission of bringing good help to those in need.”

Mercy Health and Lifepoint Rehabilitation, another business unit of Lifepoint Health, announced a separate joint venture partnership in May of 2022 to construct Mercy Health Rehabilitation Hospital, a standalone, 60-bed acute inpatient rehabilitation hospital. This hospital will treat patients who suffer from stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, complex neurological disorders, orthopedic conditions, multiple trauma, amputation and other injuries or disorders that have impacted a patient’s functional or cognitive skills. 

Both hospitals will be located in the Mahoning Valley. Construction for Mercy Health Rehabilitation Hospital is expected to begin in the spring of 2023 with an expected opening in the summer of 2024. Construction for Mercy Health Behavioral Hospital is expected to begin in the summer of 2023 with an expected opening in late 2024. 

“We are pleased to expand our partnership with Mercy Health, a leading health care system, as we look ahead to this behavioral health facility in the Mahoning Valley,” said Russ Bailey, president of Lifepoint Behavioral Health and Lifepoint Rehabilitation. “We know that in opening and operating this behavioral health hospital with Mercy Health we have a partner equally committed to our mission of making communities healthier as we ensure that Youngstown-area residents have better access to high-quality, behavioral health care.”

Upon completion, Mercy Health Behavioral Hospital will be Lifepoint Behavioral Health’s sixth joint-venture, standalone behavioral health hospital nationally and first in the state of Ohio.