ChristianaCare looks to buy Crozer Health, expanding its reach in the Philadelphia region

ChristianaCare announced Friday it intends to acquire Crozer Health, which would dramatically increase the reach of Delaware’s largest health system in the Philadelphia region. 

The health system and Crozer Health’s owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, announced that the two organizations have signed a letter of intent. The sale, which is not yet a done deal, includes the following hospitals:

• Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pennsylvania
• Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania
• Springfield Hospital in Springfield, Pennsylvania
• Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania

If the sale goes through, Crozer Health would become a nonprofit like ChristianaCare, hospital officials said. Crozer Health currently has about 4,000 employees.

ChristianaCare employs about 14,000 and is the largest private business in Delaware. 

Hospital officials did not disclose specific terms of the agreement. But it would include the hospitals’ related businesses, real estate assets, Crozer Health Medical Group and the associated assets, ambulatory centers, medical office buildings, physician clinics and ancillary outpatient services, according to a news release. 

Crozer Health has struggled financially for years. In 2016, as a nonprofit, it was bought by Prospect, a Los Angeles based for-profit company that has a reputation of buying financially weak hospitals, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.