Judge has blocked Crozer from closing Delaware County Memorial Hospital
The order, at least temporarily, saves what remains of health-care services at the Drexel Hill facility, including the emergency department.
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A Common Pleas Court judge on Tuesday ordered Crozer Health and its owner, Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., to suspend efforts to close Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill and turn it into a behavioral health facility.
The ruling followed a hearing Friday on Foundation for Delaware County’s petition for an emergency preliminary injunction that would block Crozer’s plans to eliminate the emergency department and the few remaining acute-care services at the hospital in Upper Darby.
» READ MORE: Crozer Health will turn Delaware County Memorial into a mental health hospital
The foundation represents the interests of the former nonprofit owner of the Crozer-Keystone Health System, which Los Angeles-based Prospect acquired in 2016 for $300 million, most of which went to pay off liabilities. Ultimately, the foundation collected $55 million from the sale.
Prospect’s purchase agreement required it to get the foundation’s consent before closing any of the hospitals it acquired from Crozer-Keystone. That provision is in effect until July 1, 2026.
Court of Common Pleas Senior Judge Robert J. Shenkin, who was visiting from Chester County, also ordered Crozer and Prospect officials to meet in person with officials from the foundation by Thursday to discus plans for the hospital and then to report back to him no more than two days after that on whether the foundation provided its consent.
“We are very pleased with the judge’s decision ordering Prospect to keep Delaware County Memorial Hospital open,” said Frances M. Sheehan, president of the foundation.
“He recognized that closing the hospital was a clear violation of the asset purchase agreement and Prospect’s promise when it purchased Crozer-Keystone Health System, and it would be tremendously damaging to summarily close a major hospital in a high-need community in the Philadelphia suburbs,” she said.
Shenkin is handling the case because a judge on the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, Dominic F. Pileggi, is on the foundation’s board.
Crozer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Crozer announced its plan to close the emergency department at Delaware County Memorial and to expand inpatient psychiatric services at the facility on Sept. 21. The foundation filed its petition a week later.
Crozer filed a layoff notice with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor with a closure date of Nov. 26, saying it would eliminate the jobs of 258 union workers plus those of 76 others. Crozer said all of the impacted workers would be able to get jobs elsewhere at Crozer.