After Crozer closure, confusion lingers amid wait for auction of Prospect Medical Holdings' medical campuses

CBS News

28-05-2025

The dust hasn't settled over the shutdown of the Crozer Health system in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Two hospitals were wiped out in a bankruptcy reorganization, leaving dozens of primary care physicians unemployed, their practices closed and thousands of patients without doctors.
CBS News Philadelphia has been tracking the effects, as well as following bankruptcy auctions of other medical campuses still operating under California-based Prospect Medical Holdings.
The details of an auction that was scheduled for Tuesday have not been revealed. One health system involved in the bidding process is expected to issue a news release at some point Wednesday, sources say.
Cloud of confusion hangs in air after Crozer Health closure
There are small, isolated parts of the Crozer Health system that survived the widespread closures because they're independently owned businesses operating out of buildings not owned by Prospect Medical Holdings. But a cloud of confusion hangs in the air.
"I love all of ya. But I love him the best," Viola Kilson said, surrounded by a group of doctors.
Make no mistake, Kilson is grateful some of her doctors are still in practice. At 104 years old, she was among Crozer Health's most senior patients. She was blunt in her assessment of the system's collapse and financial ruin.
"Catastrophe," she said. "I've been here since my family came from South Carolina in 1931."
Earlier this month, CBS News Philadelphia met with Kilson at her ophthalmologist's office. They're still open in a post-Crozer world. That's because the building, adjacent to the shuttered Crozer Chester Medical Center, is not owned by its parent company, Prospect Medical Holdings.
The doctors, who were formerly affiliated with Crozer, are independent of any system.
Prospect Medical Holdings, the bankrupt private equity firm, closed two hospitals and scores of other medical offices last month.
"Our building is adjacent to Crozer, but it is completely independent," Dr. John Witherell, an ophthalmologist, said. "We're able to function without Crozer. We will continue to function without Crozer."
Witherell and Dr. Christopher Williams say the last few weeks have been terribly confusing. Their staff ramped up what feels like its own marketing agency, alerting patients they're still open, despite living in the shadow of a closed medical center.
"To hear every fourth patient ask, 'Are you closing, are you shutting down, are you leaving us?' That's heartbreaking," Williams said.
Other doctors, part of a cardiology practice, say people also assumed they were included in the widespread closures. They say their practice in Upland and Chester is vital.
"A lot of our patients, this is walking distance, walking distance," Dr. John Godfrey of Cardiology Consultants of Philadelphia said.
A month later, impacts of Crozer closure still felt in Delco
CBS News Philadelphia has been investigating the impact of the Crozer Health shutdown. Former Crozer patients have told us they've spent hours trying to find new doctors. Some can't get appointments until next year.
Kilson has yet to set up a new doctor.
"It's really tough," she said. "I feel for the people younger than me. You just have to get on the phone, and my insurance was nice enough to send me two names."
These doctors say there was no roadmap on how to manage what has become a medical crisis in Delaware County.
"Today, to see the doors closed to the hospital and employees laid off, it's devastating emotionally and psychologically that this could all disappear," Williams said.
"Just the overall disappointment as to where we were and where we are now and how it came to be that way," Witherell said. "I think it's sad. An entire health care system could implode."
But these medical professionals are staying behind, and that's some comfort to Viola Kilson, who is heartbroken about what happened to Crozer.
"Crozer is like home," she said. "It feels like home. And you're losing your home when you lose Crozer Hospital."
Other Prospect facilities still open, such as medical centers in Glen Mills, Haverford and Broomall, are part of an auction process. These facilities were separated from the closure process because they were deemed viable, according to sources, who claim they are profitable.
Prospect attorneys and a spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests for comment.