Universal Health Services: Provo Canyon Behavioral Hospital is Rebranded as Aspen Grove Hospital

October 23, 2023

It came to the attention of Citizens Commission on Human Rights that Provo Canyon Behavioral Hospital has changed its name to Aspen Grove Hospital.

Provo Canyon Hospital is owned by Universal Health Services (UHS), the same corporation that owns Provo Canyon School. The latter has been under negative public scrutiny since 2020, when Paris Hilton issued her biographical film This is Paris, which tells of her forced hospitalization at the School in the late 1990s, when she was a teen. (This was prior to UHS purchasing the facility, in 2000).

Provo Canyon School and UHS faced further investigation when, in July 2022, Senators Patty Murray and Ron Wyden sent letters to the head of UHS, among other large operators of residential psychiatric facilities, requesting information about each of their locations, and how they operate. The Senators specifically asked for documentation on UHS' policies for restraining children or placing them in seclusion, the training provided to employees and the number of maltreatment and abuse incidents over the past five years. Futher, they asked for details on contracts, funding sources, complaints, and inspections, and how UHS ensures that the children in its programs receive a proper education. 

While Provo Canyon School and Provo Canyon Hospital are separate entities, it nevertheless raises some suspicion that UHS changed the Hospital's name  to Aspen Grove Hospital in approximately April of 2023 (according the Utah Secretary of State website) with no evident public notice.