A bankruptcy court has approved the sale of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia to a nonprofit duo for $50 million, which prompted concern from the hospital's physicians about the hospital's status as a trauma center, according to local media.
The nonprofit team of West Reading, Pa.-based Tower Health and Drexel University in Philadelphia won the bid to purchase the hospital last week. The deal just needed court approval.
St. Christopher's was up for sale to the "highest and best" bidder after its owner, El Segundo, Calif.-based American Academic Health System, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy July 1.
But buried in court documents is a decision that the contract of St. Christopher's CMO, who is also executive director of its heart center and chairman of cardiothoracic surgery, was on a list of contracts not being "assumed" by the buyers.
Hospital physicians expressed concern that the new nonprofit owners won't keep Achintya Moulick, MD, who they say is key to maintaining the hospital's status as a trauma center.
When asked why Tower Health and Drexel are not planning to fulfill Dr. Moulick's contract, Tower Health CEO Clint Matthews told the Philadelphia Inquirer he couldn't "speak to it."
The surgery program run by Dr. Moulick was closed for an internal review in 2016 and 2017. Afterward, state regulators said the hospital did too little to investigate nine infant deaths after heart surgery.
Dr. Moulick had been with St. Christopher's since 2009.
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