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Closing Delaware County hospice gives families one-week notice
Families of loved ones in the hospice unit at Taylor Hospital said they were given a one-week notice about its impending closure. Crozer Health said patients are able to move to different parts of the hospital and the hospice closure is only temporary.
RIDLEY, Pa. - Maureen Tribuiani said she knows her 87-year-old mother’s time is coming. It’s an indescribable pain, but one that was slightly alleviated knowing she was at least in good hands.
"We don’t know if it’s going to be weeks,or a month, or months, but she’s still at the end, and I want her happy and comfortable, and she was very comfortable there," Tribuiani said.
She brought her mother, Mary "Mae" Doherty, to the 10-bed inpatient hospice unit at Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park back on Jan. 17th with no warning signs the unit was weeks away from closing.
"We were so excited because it was such a great facility, had a great reputation," Tribuiani said.
But on Friday, Tribuiani claims they got a sudden phone call that the unit was closing in one week on Feb. 11 and they have to move Mae.
Crozer Health provided the following statement about the closure: "Due to the paramount need for patient safety, declining admissions to inpatient hospice, and challenges presented by the national nursing shortage, Crozer Health will temporarily close our inpatient hospice unit at Taylor Hospital beginning Friday, February 11. This will allow us to redeploy our staff from the hospice unit to other areas in the health system in need of additional resources so we can continue to provide safe, high-quality care to all of our patients."
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Crozer also said current patients in the unit will be relocated to a nearby medical/surgical floor at Taylor Hospital, but Tribuiani claims they were never told that.
"It’s so weird that they would admit a patient two weeks prior to that announcement, they had to have known this was in the works," Tribuiani said. "They cannot do this to people, it’s unfair, it just is not right."
A nurse within the unit told Fox 29 they were notified about the closure through a text message just a few days before patients’ families got the call. It’s the latest in a stretch of changes within Crozer Health, currently owned by Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.
In January, Delaware County Memorial Hospital closed its maternity ward and Springfield Hospital temporarily suspended emergency room services. A current Taylor Hospital employee who asked to remain anonymous fears the entire hospital will close.
Kitty McArdle, who was picking up her husband from the hospital Thursday morning, had similar concerns.
"We’re sick about this," McArdle said. "I wish it would just stay here, I hope that’s possible."
Tribuiani said they made arrangements to have Mae brought to a new facility, but they are worried it will take a toll on her already deteriorating health.
"I just want to focus on her and I just want it to be about her right now, and I want others to know what we went through and the other families, and I hope this never, ever happens again."
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