Tower Health to unload Chestnut Hill, Jennersville hospitals

Financially struggling Tower Health announced plans to cut two of the smallest facilities in its six-hospital system.

Tower will seek to close Jennersville Hospital in Chester County and to transfer Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia, the West Reading-based system announced Tuesday morning.

Tower’s board signed a letter of intent to transfer Chestnut Hill to Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, a Catholic regional health system that includes Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Delaware County; Nazareth Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia; St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, Del.; St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Bucks County and home health and LIFE programs throughout the region.

Tower said the moves will strengthen and reshape the remaining system, which includes anchor Reading Hospital, Pottstown Hospital in Montgomery County and Phoenixville and Brandywine hospitals in Chester County. Tower also operates St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

More than a dozen urgent-care centers also are being transferred to Trinity.

At its meeting last week, the Tower Health Board approved:

• Signing a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) with Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic to evaluate and plan for the transfer of ownership of Chestnut Hill Hospital and more than a dozen Tower Health urgent care centers across the surrounding region.

• Beginning an orderly process to close Jennersville Hospital, effective Jan. 1, 2022. During this period, the hospital and emergency department will remain open and continue to care for patients and the community.

Tower said it is fully committed to placing as many impacted employees and physicians as it can into other suitable positions within its system, or through priority consideration for open positions at Penn Medicine, with which it recently announced plans to develop a strategic alliance, and which offers services in the Chester County region.

Tower said it will continue to operate St. Christopher’s, a vital health care resource for some of the region’s most vulnerable populations, while working with local and state agencies and organizations to help secure that hospital’s long-term future. I

In addition, Tower Health is continuing to evaluate options to determine and define the future of Brandywine Hospital in a way that best meets community needs, according to system officials.

“These decisions were made after an intensive process by which Tower’s board sought to balance long-term sustainability and impact upon our team and the communities we serve,” Tower Health Chairman Tom Work said in a news release. “Opportunities for our employees to work at other Tower Health facilities or at Penn Medicine were important to the board and leadership. In Trinity Health, we are fortunate to have found a locally based, high-quality, nonprofit health system that shares our passion for clinical excellence and our commitment to improving health outcomes in the communities we serve.”

All Tower Health facilities will remain open andcontinue to provide services as the organization moves forward with this transition process, according to officials.

Trinity Mid-Atlantic is part of a 92-hospital multi-institutional system based in Michigan.

“Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, a member of Trinity Health, is pleased to be in discussions with Tower Health to expand our existing network of care in Pennsylvania,” President and CEO James L. Woodward said. “We are committed to retaining employees and providers of Chestnut Hill Hospital and acquired urgent care centers who are in good standing. Their dedication and service will allow us to reach even more residents in the Delaware Valley with our quality and mission-based care,”

Tower said the announcement does not impact Reading Hospital, Phoenixville Hospital, Pottstown Hospital, Tower Health at Home or the system’s remaining urgent care locations.

Tower said its partnerships will continue with Acadia Healthcare and the Drexel University College of Medicine, or DUCOM, including the new state-of-the-art DUCOM at Tower Health campus in Wyomissing. The ongoing strategic alliance process with Penn Medicine is not affected by this announcement.

“While we have made considerable progress and are in a stronger financial and operational position than we were last year, we must make additional tough decisions that will firmly establish our health system for decades to come,” said P. Sue Perrotty, president and CEO of Tower Health in a news release. “With these changes, we are beginning a new chapter for Tower Health; one that reduces uncertainty about our future.

“We can now chart a clear path forward with a constancy of purpose that unifies our entire care and support team around our patient-focused mission, particularly as we further develop our strategic alliance with Penn Medicine.”

Faced with bond downgrades to junk status and quarterly losses in the tens of millions of dollars, Tower has been looking to sell part or all of its system.

Tower lost nearly $80 million from January through March. It was an improvement over the previous quarter when it lost nearly $111 million. Yet, only Reading Hospital did not lose money in fiscal 2021, which ended June 30.

In July, West-Reading based Tower announced it had signed a nonbinding letter of intent to begin developing an alignment model with Penn Medicine, also known as the University of Pennsylvania Health System.