By Sarah Gantz
The Philadelphia Inquirer
RADNOR, Pa. 鈥� Even before Crozer-Chester Medical Center closed last month, nearby hospitals were already feeling the impact of financial woes at the beleaguered safety net provider, which operated Delaware County鈥檚 busiest emergency department and only Level 1 trauma center.
Crozer-Chester Medical Center and its sister hospital, Taylor Hospital, closed in May after years of financial turmoil and mismanagement by owner Prospect Medical Holdings. The for-profit company based in California had already closed two other hospitals in a Crozer network that provided safety net medical care in a densely populated county.
Since then, nearby hospitals have been scrambling to meet a significant rise in emergency department patients, with a 40% increase at Riddle Hospital in Media, one of the next-closest facilities. Municipalities and healthcare nonprofits have had to cobble together ambulance and EMS services, since Crozer provided EMS services to roughly 60% of the county.
But data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health show that a shift in where local patients were seeking emergency care began years earlier. Between 2021 and 2023, emergency department visits at Crozer declined 9.3%. Meanwhile emergency visits rose at other nearby hospitals, Riddle and Trinity Health鈥檚 Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby .
The hospitals began feeling the strain of Crozer鈥檚 challenges when the health system closed Delaware County Memorial Hospital and Springfield Hospital in 2022, representatives for both health systems said.
Administrators at Main Line Health, which owns Riddle, think Crozer patients began seeking care at other hospitals because they felt uncertain going to a hospital that was in talks to be shut down, said Larry Hanover, a spokesperson for Main Line Health.
Riddle, Main Line鈥檚 Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood, and Mercy Fitzgerald also had among the greatest increases in how long an average emergency department visit takes between 2021 and 2024.
鈥淭he trend is, unfortunately, expected to continue,鈥� Hanover said.
Crozer hospital had some 65,000 emergency room visits in 2023, making it the busiest emergency department in the county, even with the recent decline. Those patients will now need to find care elsewhere.
By comparison, Riddle had nearly 38,000 emergency visits and Mercy Fitzgerald had about 39,500 visits in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the health department.
Main Line Health, Trinity address emergency department challenges
Main Line and Trinity said they are preparing to take on more patients by expanding virtual services, hiring more primary care providers, and increasing urgent care options.
鈥淭his increase is now rapidly rising following the closure of Crozer-Chester Medical Center,鈥� said Brad Bendesky, chair of emergency medicine at Mercy Fitzgerald.
Trinity and Main Line said that declining primary care and mental health resources have contributed to busier emergency departments.
They expect Crozer鈥檚 closure to exacerbate these challenges.
Emergency departments attempt to stabilize patients who arrive with a psychiatric emergency, but they often need care at a specialized center. They may wait days until a bed becomes available at a psychiatric center, delaying their care and leaving less space in the hospital鈥檚 emergency department for other patients. Those delays will likely get longer, now that Crozer鈥檚 crisis center, which provided 24/7 care for mental health emergencies, is closed, Hanover said.
Main Line is trying to ease pressure on its emergency departments by helping people who do not need to be treated at the hospital get care elsewhere. The system has been expanding primary care, urgent care and virtual care, to give patients more options other than the emergency department.
Trinity said it has been coordinating across its hospitals to make sure Mercy Fitzgerald has the staff and supplies needed to treat more patients.
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