Prospect begins shutting down 2 Pennsylvania hospitals after failing to find buyers

CT Insider – Monday, April 21, 2025
By Liese Klein

Prospect Medical Holdings ‒ the bankrupt owner of Waterbury, Rockville General and Manchester Memorial hospitals ‒ announced Monday it would close down two Pennsylvania hospitals after failing to find buyers or operating cash amid its financial struggles.

“Today, Prospect Medical Holdings made the extremely difficult decision to begin winding down operations across our Crozer Health facilities,” the company said in a statement. “At this time, the focus at Crozer Health remains on seamlessly transitioning patients to other health facilities so that they can continue to receive the critical, uninterrupted care they require, and to support Crozer Health team members as they seek to identify other employment opportunities.”

Starting on Wednesday, ambulances will be diverted from the two hospitals ‒ Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Chester and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park. New patients will no longer be admitted to the hospitals and resident patients will start being transferred to other facilities, according to a closure plan filed with the court.

“Along with the governor’s office and other state and local leaders, we worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome,” the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the damage inflicted by Leonard Green & Partners — the private equity owners of Prospect — who prioritized their own wealth over the wellbeing of a community, was too much to overcome.”

Connecticut lawmakers are currently considering proposed new laws to limit the role of private equity in the state’s health-care marketplace, citing the impact of Prospect’s actions nationwide. Yale New Haven Health announced it had ended its bid to buy the Connecticut hospitals earlier this year.

Prospect first filed to close the Pennsylvania hospitals on March 6, citing ongoing losses and lack of a buyer to take over in bankruptcy. In the weeks since, the company has worked with health systems, state and county officials and a local foundation to keep the hospitals open.

After several infusions of cash, Prospect told bankruptcy court Judge Stacey Jernigan on April 10 that it needed another $9 million to keep the hospitals running until the end of the month, but had only secured $6 million.

The hospitals’ final act came on Thursday, when the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office told Prospect that “no potential buyer was willing to take over operations of the Pennsylvania hospitals and that there was no hope for a long-term solution,” Monday’s court filing stated.

As of Jan. 31, Crozer-Chester Medical Center employed 1,856 people and had lost $46.9 million in its fiscal year to date. Taylor Hospital employed 347 and had lost $4.3 million in the same period, according to the March closure filing.

“We will continue to work through the bankruptcy process to pursue the commonwealth’s financial claims to the greatest extent possible in order to hold Prospect accountable for actions that caused this closure,” the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said.

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