Magellan Health Services restores Friends Hospital to network

Friends Hospital said Wednesday that it had been restored as a network provider by the company that manages most mental health care for low-income suburban patients, having allayed concerns about staffing levels.

A spokeswoman for Magellan Health Services confirmed that Friends, the psychiatric hospital in Northeast Philadelphia, was back in its network as of Monday for patients in Bucks, Montgomery, and Delaware Counties, though she declined to say why.

Friends was dropped from the Magellan network on June 18 after allegations of overcrowding, but successfully appealed that decision by demonstrating that the concern was unfounded, hospital chief executive officer Ken Glass said.

Glass added that Friends also had satisfied concerns raised by the state Department of Public Welfare, which restored the hospital's full license in March after six months of provisional status.

"I don't believe that there's any hospital that has gone through as many inspections as we have in the last six months and done so well on all of them," said Glass. He was hired last year by Psychiatric Solutions Inc., which owns 80 percent of the hospital and is now being acquired by Universal Health Services Inc. of King of Prussia.

The provisional license had been issued after state officials found inadequate recordkeeping and other shortcomings. Treatment plans for several patients contained vague objectives, and there were inconsistencies in other forms of patient documentation, according to a September 2009 report by state inspectors.

Glass began his job that same month and has sought to rebuild the image of the 197-year-old facility on Roosevelt Boulevard. He hired four doctors away from the Temple University Health System and also opened a recovery unit that offers peer support to patients, aiming to help them reconnect with the community.