Chester County Hospital pushes modular hospital after Tower Health closures

Chester County Hospital is pushing for a modular hospital to help ease the influx of patients its received since the closures of two Tower Health hospitals. The temporary auxiliary hospital would give Chester County Hospital 12 extra beds.

WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Chester County Hospital is one step closer to getting additional emergency room beds.

On Tuesday night, the West Goshen Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to waive land development requirements for the hospital to set-up a modular emergency room in their parking lot, which will speed up the process.

With wait times as high as nine hours in recent weeks, lawyers for the hospital asked for the waiver due to the urgency and need for more space after the closure of Brandywine and Jennersville hospitals. The added space would provide 12 additional beds.

Charles "Chaz" Brogan, President of the Chester County EMS Council, says wait times have improved from where they were in early January, but in addition to staffing, space is a challenge.

"It would give them 12 more ER beds which would be extremely helpful," Brogan said.

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Brogan believes their biggest focus is mitigation, but also working with county partners on trying to find a new buyer for the hospitals.

On Wednesday, lawyers for Canyon Atlantic Partners, LLC and Tower Health were in court on the request for an injunction against Tower Health.

Tower Health originally announced Canyon Atlantic as a buyer of the two hospitals that would keep them open, but terminated the deal weeks before officially closing both facilities, saying Canyon Atlantic was unable to demonstrate it could effectively take ownership and operate the two hospitals.

In court on Wednesday, Canyon’s Chief Financial Officer, Michael Zwetschkenbaum, testified that Tower asked for more money up front than the original purchase agreement called for.

He also outlined certain requests of documents and checks and balances to close the deal, but said Tower "continued to put up barriers."

Attorneys for Tower Health argued that the injunction should not be granted with the hospitals already closed, saying Canyon "did absolutely nothing" for 42 days before filing its request.