Chariot Allaire Partners, the new owner of Crozer-Chester Medical Center, announced plans to “rightsize” the inpatient hospital to a tenth of its current size and reopen the 64-acre campus in Upland in a phased approach. The company plans to enter into a study process with two to three major academic medical centers in the Philadelphia region, with discussions expected to take 60 to 90 days.
Timeline and Reality
Yoel Polack, founder and principal of Chariot Equities, said the “aspirational” endeavor to restore health care could take up to three years. However, he acknowledged that two to three years away is two to three years too long, citing an urgent need now. Polack announced a new partnership with the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, which has committed to financially support establishing a primary care practice at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, with hopes of realization within the next nine months.
Chariot Equities and its partner, Allaire Health Services, completed their purchase of Crozer-Chester Medical Center in January. Chester Mayor Stefan Root noted that the property is empty, without beds, bed sheets, ovens, computers, or X-ray machines.
Operational Plans
Polack said “size, size and size” played a role in Crozer-Chester Medical Center’s demise. The existing facility is 750,000 to a million square feet, but contemporary medical care could meet the same emergency services demand in a tenth of that size. Phase one involves restoring services on the main campus where the hospital is located, with phase two adding complementary services on the west campus. Dr. Arthur Klein, chief health care advisor to Chariot Allaire Partners, emphasized that an emergency room is absolutely part of the plan, but that the campus should have a robust urgent care setup and good preventive care.
Klein noted that the plan is not to shrink beds by 90%, though he declined to settle on a concrete number. Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park could potentially reopen before Crozer-Chester Medical Center if the right operator comes along, given that it is in pretty good shape and already the correct size and scale.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://whyy.org/articles/crozer-closure-chester-medical-center-new-owner/