NEW CASTLE, PA. Human Services to end contract with hospital

Changes in the hospital's parent organization prompted the decision to break away.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The Human Services Center, a provider of psychiatric outpatient and residential services, has gone to court to end its affiliation with St. Francis Hospital of New Castle.
St. Francis is a member hospital of the St. Francis Health System of Pittsburgh and Dr. Dennis Nebel, executive director of Human Services Center, said recent changes in the St. Francis Health System prompted the decision to end the affiliation.
HSC has filed a petition in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court to do just that, he said Friday.
HSC entered into a contract with St. Francis Hospital in January 2000, with St. Francis providing inpatient psychiatric and partial hospitalization services while HSC concentrated on outpatient and residential psychiatric services.
However, financial difficulties of the St. Francis Health System have led to the loss of local resources and staff needed to reach program goals, Nebel said, adding that the inability of the Health System to provide adequate liability insurance for its member hospital directors and officers posed further problems.
Resignations
It led to the recent resignation of the entire board of directors at St. Francis Hospital of New Castle, including HSC's representative on that board, Nebel said.
The resulting reorganization centralizes governing authority in Pittsburgh and leaves little or no room for a Lawrence County point of view, he said, adding that, under the affiliation agreement, the management of mental health services had fallen to HSC.
Nebel told The Vindicator that he hopes to negotiate an end to the formal affiliation but that filing the court action was a precautionary first step in the event that negotiations to terminate the contract fail.
Ending the formal affiliation won't end HSC's clinical relationship with St. Francis of New Castle, he said, noting that HSC clients will still use the inpatient services offered by the hospital when needed.