About
About Kensington Hospital
Kensington Hospital is a community-focused hospital at 136 West Diamond Street in Philadelphia, embedded in the Kensington neighborhood that sits at the center of the city’s opioid epidemic. Through its Community Behavioral Services line, the hospital delivers Inpatient Withdrawal Management (medical detox) and Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) to patients struggling with opioid use disorder and other substance use conditions, with care coordinated alongside Community Behavioral Health (CBH) and the Behavioral Health Special Initiative (BHSI), Philadelphia’s publicly funded behavioral health programs.
The addiction service line is anchored in a hospital setting, which means patients can receive medically supervised withdrawal management with 24-hour physician availability rather than at a freestanding outpatient program. Kensington’s Continuing Care Unit functions as an acute care step-down, providing IV antibiotic therapy, wound care, and methadone or Suboxone management for patients who often present with co-occurring medical complications of long-term substance use. The hospital’s goal, as the program describes it, is to transition patients back into the community with both their addiction and their physical health stabilized.
Kensington Hospital is dually accredited by the Joint Commission and CARF and operates a SAMHSA-certified Opioid Treatment Program, allowing it to dispense methadone and provide buprenorphine-based MAT under federal standards. Beyond addiction services, the Diamond Wellness Center offers primary care, podiatry, and pulmonology to the surrounding communities of Fishtown, Port Richmond, and North Philadelphia. Pulmonologist Dr. Mohammad Sayeed, MD is among the medical staff serving the wellness center.
Payment is structured around access, with Medicaid, Medicare, state insurance, self-pay, and the city-funded CBH and BHSI programs all in the mix. For patients in Philadelphia, especially those facing opioid use disorder alongside complex medical issues such as endocarditis, abscesses, or chronic infections, Kensington Hospital offers an accredited, community-rooted inpatient option that integrates addiction care with the medical care that often must happen alongside it.
- Joint Commission-accredited hospital program with 24-hour physician availability for medical emergencies during detox
- Certified Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) providing methadone and Suboxone management for opioid withdrawal
- Hospital-based medical detox with IV antibiotic treatment and wound care for complex medical conditions
- Founded in 1883 with established presence serving Philadelphia's high-need addiction treatment community
- Charity care program providing financial assistance based on income and assets for uninsured patients