Suburban Community Hospital in East Norriton will become small behavioral health facility

Prime Healthcare Foundation is turning Suburban Community Hospital in East Norriton into a behavioral health facility with 15 beds for adults 55 and older, the California organization announced Friday.

Other services will close at Suburban under the change effective July 1. Prime had suspended services at the hospital’s 15-bed psychiatric unit last year.

Suburban’s downsizing started last summer, when it limited offerings to emergency and diagnostic services as a micro-hospital.

Prime noted that Jefferson Einstein Montgomery Hospital is the nearest ED, just 2 miles from Suburban.

Before that, the facility was licensed for 126 beds, but had few patients. In 2023, it averaged 23 patients a day. So far this year, the average number of patients per day has been eight, according to Prime.

As of July, Suburban will operate under the license of Prime’s Roxborough Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia, Prime said. Thirty-seven full-time staff will remain at Suburban.

The hospital’s other 89 full-time employees will be offered comparable positions at other Prime facilities, including Roxborough and Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township. The hospital told state regulators Friday that it would lay off 109 people. That figure includes part-time workers and certain per-diem staffers.

Graduate medical education will continue at Suburban through this academic year and then continue under Roxborough. Suburban has a residency program with 18 doctors in training. An additional 15 family practice residents train there.

Independent medical practices at Suburban will continue. They include Fox Chase Cancer Center, Primary Care of East Norriton, and Suburban Family Medicine at Norristown.

Prime Healthcare Foundation acquired Suburban in 2016 for $25 million.