Following months of failed negotiations, Crozer Health filed for bankruptcy and will close its Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital in Delaware County.
The motion to close the hospital system was filed on April 21 by parent company Prospect Medical Holdings. The closure — which is expected to be completed within 30 days, affecting 3,000 workers and nearly 75,000 patients — comes after Penn Medicine offered a $5 million cash influx to assume two of the system’s leases.
“We are deeply saddened to hear that Prospect Medical Holdings plans to close Crozer Health,” a Penn Med spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Earlier this month, we made an offer of $5 million to support Crozer Health’s operations and purchase certain assets associated with Crozer’s Broomall and Brinton Lake outpatient facilities.”
“Despite these efforts, Prospect Medical notified us last week that they rejected our offer,” the spokesperson added. “We are deeply disappointed by this decision, which will have negative impacts for patients and displace many talented health care professionals at a time when health care needs in the community are only increasing.”
In a statement, Prospect said the system was “unable to reach a viable alternative.”
Prospect previously closed two other Pennsylvania hospitals, Delaware County Memorial Hospital and Springfield Hospital, in 2022.
In response to the closure, Delaware County issued an emergency declaration Monday and is in the process of filing an objection to the motion, claiming that Prospect’s actions are “deeply inadequate and do not comply with local law” since a 180-day notice was not provided to the county regarding the closure.
Efforts to save the Crozer system have been ongoing for several months, and Crozer hospitals have received $46 million from local entities. Initially, $20 million in Pennsylvania taxpayer money and $20 million from The Foundation for Delaware County — a community nonprofit organization — were infused into the system to keep it afloat following its initial declaration of bankruptcy.
Subsequently, Prospect set a deadline for an additional $9 million to be procured by April 16 to keep the system afloat. At this time, Penn Med offered $5 million, and Delaware County donated an additional $1 million specifically for mental health services provided to Crozer patients.
Patients have already begun to be diverted and transferred to other hospitals. On Tuesday afternoon, a Temple University Health System helicopter arrived at the Crozer-Chester Medical Center to transfer Crozer patients out of the hospital’s burn unit.
Crozer healthcare workers, patients, and state representatives gathered outside Crozer-Chester Medical Center on Tuesday to protest the closure.
Many shared how devastating the closure would be to the Delaware County community.
“For-profit [organizations] cannot come in and take away all of the rights of the people in a poor community,” Peggy Malone, a Crozer behavioral health nurse and the president of the Crozer-Chester Nurses Association, said at the April 22 demonstration.
“They may say they’re closing us, and they’re trying to do it so rapidly. What’s going on in the building, trying to get patients out and get patients discharged, it’s unbelievable,” she added.
“They must be held accountable for their reckless actions that have led to today’s announcement,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told CBS. “Their conduct and mismanagement must be fully reviewed in the bankruptcy legal process to hold them to account under the law, and we must ensure this never happens again by passing legislation to get private equity out of the health care business in Pennsylvania, as I proposed in my budget address earlier this year.”
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