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Crozer Chester Medical Center to remain open after parent company filed for bankruptcy

Lawmakers say they’ll “fight” to keep Crozer open after parent company filed for bankruptcy
Lawmakers say they’ll “fight” to keep Crozer open after parent company filed for bankruptcy 03:21

Insiders tell CBS News Philadelphia conditions at Crozer Chester Medical Center were already dire.

Now, emotions are running even higher after Prospect Medical Holdings, the company that owns the medical system, has filed for bankruptcy.

One state senator is drafting legislation to ban for-profit companies from buying hospitals in Pennsylvania in response to the ongoing situation at Crozer Chester.

"Every day is a new crisis," Peggy Malone said.

The hits seemingly keep coming for Malone, the president of the nurses' union at Crozer Chester. Malone, who has been with the hospital for nearly four decades, promises a full-scale fight in the wake of the hospital's owner filing for bankruptcy.

"You'll hear people say every day, 'We can't believe what has happened to our hospital,'" Malone said. "Nobody would ever thought it would look like it does."

At a news conference where lawmakers said they were fuming, there came assurances that Crozer Chester Medical Center would remain open while its parent company, in seeking a Chapter 11 reorganization, searches for a buyer.

"Today, I stand before you angry and I'm not going to say what they put in here, but it has something to do with me being pissed off. Well I am," said State Sen. John Kane, whose district includes the hospital.

Two dozen state officials and lawmakers gathered in front of the Delaware County Courthouse in Media, a symbolic show of force in the face of an uncertain future for the hospital.

"A bankruptcy filing does not mean this hospital is closing today and we will fight like hell to keep it open," Rep. Leanne Krueger, a Democrat, said.

For months, CBS News Philadelphia has looked into Prospect Medical Holdings -- researching court filings and interviewing workers. There are multiple lawsuits where vendors have sued the Los Angeles-based company trying to get payment for bills totaling in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sources have detailed a hospital in bad shape with aging equipment and a lack of resources. CBS News Philadelphia pressed lawmakers about the hospital's condition. 

"Our understanding is the building is actually in OK shape and should continue to be a hospital going forward," State Sen. Tim Kearney said.

But it's not just the bankruptcy.

On Dec. 27, a water main break flooded an electrical room leading to the evacuations of dozens of patients as electrical transformers arced and caught fire. Sources confirmed to CBS News Philadelphia Investigators the hospital is still powered by a generator as the transformers will have to be replaced. 

RELATED: Emergency rooms at Crozer Chester Medical Center, Taylor Hospital reopen after temporarily closing

Chester Mayor Stefan Roots said Crozer, with its trauma center, is vital to the city's residents.

"Crozer has been the star in the Crozer system for so long," he said. "To see it in the condition it's in right now, it's unthinkable."

Prospect Medical Holdings did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday. Lawmakers said they were pressing for accountability, telling us a referral for an investigation had been made to the U.S. Attorney's Office. A spokesperson said their standard procedure is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

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