Upland, Pa.-based Crozer Health announced the closure of Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital in Delaware County, Pa. Employees were alerted to the shutdowns via an April 21 email from parent company Prospect Medical Holdings.
The shutterings follow a period of turmoil from the system, which recently secured $6 million to keep its two hospitals, Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Pa., temporarily operational. In August, Taylor Hospital ceased performing surgeries in an effort to consolidate.
Here are eight other things for ASC leaders and physicians to know about the closure:
1. Despite the hospitals’ shuttering, Crozer’s ASCs and imaging centers in Brinton Lake, Broomall, Haverford and Media, Pa., will stay open.
2. The shutdown will result in layoffs of more than 2,600 employees. Prospect said that the shutdown is expected to take place between April 25 and May 2. The closure process and patient transition plans have not yet been outlined.
3. The Borough of Ridley Park (Pa.) declared an emergency due to Crozer Health’s ongoing financial struggles. Henry Eberle Jr., mayor of Ridley Park, said in an April 17 emergency declaration posted on the town’s Facebook page that “a significant reduction of healthcare services including but not limited to access to medical treatment will impact the Delaware County area, including substantial geographic portions of Ridley Park Borough, with the potential to cause injury, damage and suffering to the persons and property of Ridley Park Borough, Delaware County, Pa.”
4. On April 15, Becker’s reported that Tony Esposito would step down as CEO of Crozer Health. Mr. Esposito has been with Crozer for more than five years and was appointed CEO in July 2022. Greg Williams, president of Prospect Medical Holdings’ East Coast operations, will serve as interim CEO.
5. In a letter shared with state officials, Los Angeles-based Prospect said it had been working with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office to facilitate a sale of Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital, NBC Philadelphia reported April 21. However, on April 18, the company learned that no prospective buyers — including the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which had offered $5 million to extend negotiations — would proceed.
6. Prospect, which acquired Crozer in 2016, said it has worked “tirelessly” with the state to explore every possible avenue to avoid shutdown, but has “made the extremely difficult decision to begin winding down operations across our Crozer Health facilities,” the company said in an April 21 statement shared with Becker’s.
7. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office placed blame squarely on Prospect’s private equity owners, Leonard Green & Partners, accusing them of prioritizing profit over community health.
“We worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome. Unfortunately, the damage inflicted by Leonard Green & Partners … was too much to overcome,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “We will continue to work through the bankruptcy process to pursue the Commonwealth’s financial claims to the greatest extent possible in order to hold Prospect accountable for actions that caused this closure.”8. In January, Prospect initiated voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings as it worked to sell 10 of its 16 hospitals. The system operates seven hospitals in California, four in Pennsylvania, three in Connecticut and two in Rhode Island. Prospect is also the parent company of Bloomfield, N.J.-based CHA Partners.
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