SPRINGFIELD — Crozer Health will temporarily suspend services in the Springfield Hospital emergency department and ancillary services beginning Jan. 14 due to COVID overload, officials announced Monday.
In addition, the system has suspended the inpatient Acute Substance Abuse and Residential Substance Abuse (First Steps) Program at Crozer-Chester Medical Center as of Jan. 7. These service suspensions will allow for the temporary reallocation of staff from these departments to other areas in the health system in need of additional resources officials said in a press release.
Closures at Springfield Hospital include the Emergency Department, pathology, lab and medical imaging. All outpatient services located in the Healthplex Pavilion office building adjacent to Springfield Hospital – including Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, wound care, cardiac rehab services, and physician offices – will remain open and operational.
At Wednesday’s county council meeting health department officials said all Delaware County hospitals were at capacity and the county Medical Reserve Corps had been called to assist due to rising COVID cases.
“Our community, especially our hospitals and emergency departments are overwhelmed by the impact, not just from COVID patients but those needing care for medical emergencies and accidents,” Delaware County Medical Advisor Dr. Lisa O’Mahony told the County Council on Wednesday.
Monday evening O’Mahony confirmed hospitals are at capacity.
“At Crozer-Chester half the total census of patients are COVID patients, 145 patients. That’s pretty startling,” O”Mahony said. “That is the highest number since the start of the pandemic. There are tremendous staffing shortages. The Medical Reserve Corp is supporting the Crozer hospitals.”
O’Mahony said many COVID patients are diagnosed incidentally.
“It’s not that they presented with COVID symptoms,it’s part of the protocol to test everybody when you are going to get admitted to the hospital. They were asymptomatic but they do get counted as COVID patients.”
Patients seeking emergency care will be directed to nearby emergency departments and urgent care centers. Outpatient substance abuse services at Crozer-Chester Medical Center will remain operational.
“We regret having to take these steps, but our patients’ safety is always our top priority,” said Peter Adamo, Crozer Health CEO. “Our patient care resources have been strained due to the national nursing shortage and many colleagues out sick with COVID-19, echoing the challenges faced by other health systems locally and across the country. Therefore, we need to reallocate resources to other locations throughout the system to continue providing safe, high-quality care to our patients.”
In the press release Adamo said that consolidating services will help Crozer Health continue caring for Delaware County and surrounding areas through what is considered to be one of the worst nurse shortages in decades.
According to the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania, the commonwealth’s hospitals are experiencing a 27 percent RN vacancy rate and a 45.5 percent vacancy rate for nursing support positions like nurse assistants and patient care assistants. This challenge overlaps with the effects of COVID-19 on Pennsylvania hospitals, causing $6.8 billion in added expenses and lost revenue resulting from the pandemic, according to information from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
Crozer Health hopes to resume all services as soon as it is safely possible, said Adamo. The health system will continue to reassess its operations, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will make any additional modifications that are in the best interest of its patients and staff.
