Healthcare workers, community members and elected officials protested outside Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pa., in response to Crozer Health's plan to end several services, WHYY reported May 4.
The Springfield, Pa.-based health system is owned by Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings. Crozer recently announced the June closure of several substance abuse and mental health services and threatened to end emergency medical services to seven municipalities unless they pay up.
The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, representing about 1,200 nurses and healthcare workers in the system, planned the rally.
Peggy Malone, president of the Crozer-Chester Nurses Association, told the station that Crozer has not been transparent about where it has spent "large sums" of COVID-19 money while it asks the county and municipalities for more money. Wilmington, Del.-based ChristianaCare recently made plans to acquire the system from Prospect.
"[Prospect is] cutting services saying that there is no money, yet we want to know, where was this money spent? Because, what we know is that this money has been given back to their investors. And now they have taken so much money from our system, that they're ready to sell us and leave us with nothing," Ms. Malone said.
Susan Rubinstein has a family member receiving treatment at one of Crozer's facilities, Chester, Pa.-based Community Hospital, which will be closing its mental health and substance use disorder treatment outpatient services. She told the station her family is now "scrambling" to find care elsewhere.
"We just literally don't know what to do," she said. "The other thing is, I'm very concerned about a lot of the patients over in the mental health facilities here who may not be aware of what's going on, or may not have family as caregivers. We know what’s going on, so we can be proactive, but there are probably a lot of people who don't, or don't have the wherewithal to do something and to find other care, and this is going to throw the entire county into chaos."
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