Prospect Medical Looks To Abandon 2 Shuttered Delco Hospitals Amid Bankruptcy Proceedings

The owner of several shuttered Delaware County hospitals is looking to get two of the properties axed from its bankruptcy case as residents continue to face major emergency care gaps.

Prospect Medical Holdings, the California-based owner of the defunct Crozer Health system, received a $1.25M offer for Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Upper Darby and a $575K offer for Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, according to court filings obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Those are far lower than the tax claims on the properties of about $20M and $8M, respectively, so Prospect wants to abandon them.

If a Texas judge approves the proposed abandonment at a hearing scheduled for Aug. 4, Prospect would stop accumulating bankruptcy liabilities related to the properties and a lender could foreclose on them.

Upper Darby School District previously expressed interest in buying Delaware County Memorial, which is next to its high school.

Prospect has been fighting assessments on the properties for years, the Inquirer reported. The higher values stem from a 2019 deal where the company netted $400M through a sale-leaseback agreement for the Delco hospitals with Medical Properties Trust.

The properties were among four Keen-Summit Capital Partners listed on behalf of Prospect last month. The other two are Springfield Hospital and the Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, which was previously Delco’s lone high-level trauma center. No update was provided on the sales process for those properties.

Crozer’s shutdown following a yearslong fight to keep the hospitals open has caused longer ambulance ride times and extended emergency room waits at the region’s remaining healthcare facilities.

While new ambulance fleets, including some former Crozer workers, have stepped up to help fill the gaps, the long-term sustainability of Delco’s healthcare system remains in question.

“It’s being held together with vines and coconut shells,” Haverford Township Director of Emergency Services Jim McCans told WHYY.

The gap in services has created an opportunity for other healthcare providers.

Vybe Urgent Care is planning a fourth Delco location after its Folsom outpost saw a 20% increase in patient volume following Crozer’s shutdown.

Delaware-based ChristianaCare is also opening microhospitals in the county, one in Aston and another in Springfield.