Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, which owns Upland, Pa.-based Crozer Health, has withdrawn its lawsuit against the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education after the organization removed Crozer-Chester Medical Center's surgical residency program's accreditation.
"In light of recent additional departures of our surgical residents due to the unprecedented actions taken by the ACGME [which we have appealed], we have elected to file a motion of dismissal without prejudice," a spokesperson for Crozer said in a statement shared with Becker's.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas by Prospect on Jan. 31, claimed that the program's initial 15 physicians in training have been exiting over concerns that their academic efforts from January and June might not be credited toward educational prerequisites.
The program was directed to close "under special circumstances" by Jan. 12 on ACGME's website.
The program then received an extension shortly after by filing an appeal, but if Crozer's appeal proves unsuccessful in June, the ACGME asserts that the withdrawal of accreditation will be applied retroactively from Jan. 30. Accreditation losses are typically effective June 30, the end of the residency year.
According to the lawsuit, nine of the program's initial 15 residents said they were planning to leave due to the accreditation loss.
"At this time, we will concentrate our efforts on the appeal and on securing necessary resources to accommodate for the loss of the residents to ensure no interruption of services," the Crozer spokesperson said.