Crozer ordered to cease most services, divert ER patients as shutdown looms

Crozer Health properties have begun a process to shutdown on Wednesday after a bankruptcy judge approved planned closures of the Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Chester and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park.

The judge's orders told both hospitals in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, to cease accepting new patients into their emergency rooms as of 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

The orders were filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas on Monday.

Along with diverting emergency patients to other hospitals, the order requires Crozer-Chester and Taylor Hospital to cease all elective inpatient admissions, post notices of the impending closures and cease all trauma, surgical, obstetrics and gynecology, burn, behavioral health, oncology and outpatient services.

This was also to take place on Wednesday, as well.

Crozer's properties were also ordered to close all ambulatory services on Monday, April 28, 2025.

NBC10's Yukare Nakayama found that the timeline could change, but the impacts of the order have already begun.

"Our patients are going to die, and that's a fact," said Melanie, an oncology worker at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Tom Polizzi, vice president of Crozer Medical Professionals, a union that represents workers in the Crozer health system, agreed, claiming that the decision to close these facilities was motivated by greed.

"This isn't a tragedy. This is a crime. This is failure by design," he said at a rally earlier this week. "This is what they want."

Officials and legislators have been working in recent weeks to find a way to keep Crozer's hospitals open, but on Monday, employees learned that the shutdowns were coming -- and so were the layoffs of about 2,651 people.

Throughout this shutdown process, the judge's order requires that patients currently at these facilities be discharged "in the ordinary course," and hospital officials have been instructed to find alterative facilities for those who need ongoing care and arrange for their transfer.

According to Dr. Monica Taylor, the chair of the Delaware County Council, these shutdowns are happening too soon. It's believed that Prospect Medical Holdings, the company that owns Crozer Health, hopes to close the hospitals by May 2, 2025.

"A typical closure of a hospital takes months of a hospital this size. And what Prospect has proposed is to close down the doors in two weeks," Taylor told NBC10.

However, closure details remain fluid. The state's Department of Health has said it is closely reviewing the closure plan and will continue to monitor the situation and stay in contact with Prospect Medical Holdings as the shutdown process unfolds.

For Taylor, she worries that people who need care could fall through the cracks with the sudden shutdown plans.

"We have to be mindful of how we help support those two hospitals existing," she said. "And how they get access to care.”

Officials have said that Riddle Hospital in Media and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Lansdowne will be taking patients from Crozer Health facilities.

Also, Prospect Medical Holdings has set up a call center for patients who have questions about their medical records and for employees with concerns about the plan. The center can be reached by calling 1-888-801-2338.