Crozer-Chester Medical Center is closing, and a city becomes a ‘healthcare desert’

Despite determined and even desperate efforts to save the Crozer-Chester Medical Center, the hospital is closing its doors.

Prospect Medical Holdings, the owner of Crozer Health, said it had no choice but to shut down the health system in the Philadelphia suburbs amid mounting costs and the inability to find another buyer. Crozer Health includes the Crozer-Chester Medical Center, and Taylor Hospital, which shut down last week.

Now, Crozer-Chester Medical Center is closing today. The emergency department has already been shut down, and the medical center is looking to transfer its few remaining patients. The medical center’s roots date back more than 160 years.

The hospital is based in Chester, a small city of about 33,000. Nearly one-third of the city’s residents are in poverty, and many don’t have reliable transportation.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Tim Kearney, a Democrat representing Delaware County, says he’s worried about those needing emergency care, and really any kind of medical attention. The community has very few healthcare providers.

With the medical center’s closure, “Chester is a healthcare desert,” Kearney tells Chief Healthcare Executive®.

Kearney is leading efforts to prevent similar hospital closures in Pennsylvania, as he and other lawmakers are pushing for changes in state law governing hospital sales. Elected officials and lawmakers alike fault private equity owners for shuttering the system and the loss of thousands of jobs.

‘A train wreck’

The closure of Crozer-Chester and Taylor Hospital follow the loss of two other hospitals in Delaware County in the past few years.

Prospect shut down Delaware County Memorial Hospital and Springfield Hospital in 2022. And Crozer Health has weathered fears of closure repeatedly.

“It’s been like a train wreck that's been happening really over the last two years,” Kearney says.

Delaware County had six hospitals a few years ago, and now only two are remaining to serve the county’s 584,000 residents: Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, part of Trinity Health, and Riddle Memorial Hospital, part of Main Line Health.

The loss of Crozer-Chester and Taylor Hospital poses major problems for residents in Delaware County who need care, but Kearney says the outlook for the small city of Chester is especially worrisome. Many in the small city don’t have reliable transportation. So even though Chester is part of the Philadelphia region, many will find it harder to get care or get to another hospital in an emergency.

“There's all these hospitals in Philadelphia, there's hospitals in Wilmington, but that's just time,” Kearney says. “It's extra time to get there.”

• Read more: With Crozer Health closing, nearby hospitals prepare for more patients

A 283-bed teaching hospital, Crozer-Chester operated the only trauma center in Delaware County. Taylor Hospital had 107 beds.

Crozer-Chester also operated a highly regarded burn unit. “It had an incredible reputation as a great facility,” Kearney says.

Peggy Malone, a nurse at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, told Chief Healthcare Executive last week that she’s worried about lives being endangered due to longer trips to other hospitals for emergency care.

‘“Everybody wants to take our patients right now,” Malone says.

“But the reality is, what happens tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Which is what I have said all along. These patients can't get anywhere else. They don't have the transportation.”

Even those who own a car are facing much more time getting to one of the other hospitals, and many Delaware County roads are choked with traffic in the congested Philadelphia suburbs.

“It's not always the easiest county to maneuver around with, with traffic, and it's putting an incredible strain on people, but it's also a huge strain on the EMS system,” Kearney says.

‘A kind of horror story’

Crozer Health’s closure also brings real pain to the Delaware County economy, with more than 3,000 people losing their jobs.

Some doctors and nurses have already applied to other hospitals and health systems in the Philadelphia region. Clinicians may be better positioned to find work sooner since many hospitals struggle with filling all of their vacancies, but some of them may not be assured of getting a new job.

‘Even the clinicians … there is a shortage, but there's not that big a shortage,” Kearney says. “There are more people who work at Crozer who are not gonna be able to find jobs.”

Dr. Monica Taylor, chairwoman of the Delaware County Council, praised the Crozer Health staff who remained on the job even amidst threats of closure.

“They stayed true to their work,” Taylor said in an interview last week. “They stayed to the very end, and they have been there for our community. They have served our residents. And, yeah, it's just really impressive that that's what that's where they want to be, that's who they want to serve.”

Some job fairs are being set up, including one in Subaru Park, home of the Philadelphia Union, the pro soccer team.

The loss of two hospitals also is a blow to the other businesses around those hospitals. Kearney says the fallout will be widespread.

“It’s such a kind of horror story that people have difficulty trying to focus on to figure out exactly what it's going to be,” Kearney says. “But we know it's going to be severe.”

Changing state law

Officials and residents alike are seething at Prospect Medical Holdings. Prospect filed for bankruptcy in January, with the company listing debts of more than $400 million. State lawmakers and Delaware County put up millions to keep Crozer Health operating in hopes of finding another buyer, but Prospect said it had no alternative but to shut the system down.

Leonard Green & Partners, a private equity firm, held majority ownership in Prospect Medical Holdings from 2010 through 2021. Given the experience at Crozer, Kearney and other lawmakers say they are looking to establish safeguards to prevent private equity firms from buying hospitals, neglecting them and heading out of town.

Kearney and other lawmakers are looking to pass legislation giving Pennsylvania’s attorney general the power to review hospital sales and mergers to determine if they’re in the public interest. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has urged lawmakers to approve such a law.

Kearney is especially interested in provisions that would bar private equity firms that own hospitals and nursing homes from selling their land and renting it back. He said that arrangement devastated Crozer.

“They were being charged $36 million in rent for property that they used to own,” Kearney said.

Under private equity ownership, Prospect didn’t adequately invest in the facilities, Kearney said. When Delaware County Memorial Hospital closed in 2022, other health systems were interested in buying the facility, but changed their mind when they saw its condition, he said.

“Every single one of them came out saying, this is a tear down,” Kearney says.

Kearney and other lawmakers have asked Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday to pursue possible criminal charges against Prospect. But he acknowledges that may be a difficult case to bring.

Still, Kearney and other local officials are determined to prevent other communities from losing their hospitals. And Kearney says there’s bipartisan support for such measures in the wake of Crozer’s closure.

“Crozer has been there since the Civil War in Chester,” Kearney says. “They managed to survive all sorts of things, but it really couldn't survive private equity.”

• Read more: Hospitals and private equity: Scathing Senate report shows concerns cross party lines