Temple will take over Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s Philadelphia location

Temple University Health System has agreed to buy the Philadelphia location of Cancer Treatment Centers of America, the two organizations said Thursday. The price was not disclosed.

Cancer Treatment Centers of America is a private for-profit. Temple said it will convert the Juniata Park location into a nonprofit. The deal includes buildings, equipment, and supplies.

Michael A. Young, president and chief executive of Temple University Health System, said the acquisition will give Temple office space to replace what was lost in a fire last year. The deal will also provide room to spread out clinical programs that are now crammed into Temple University Hospital, and it offers a good chance to hire many of the 350 cancer center employees who generate high patient satisfaction scores.

“This gives us clinical opportunity, close enough to Temple that will allow us to eventually move some programs over there,” Young said. It could be a mix of inpatient and outpatient programs, including cancer care, he said. Another plus is that the clinical spaces are much newer than most of what Temple has.

The surprising deal represents an about-face for Temple, which was planning to sell Fox Chase Cancer Center to Thomas Jefferson University as part of a restructuring meant to allow Temple to focus on its core North Philadelphia market.

Jefferson backed out of that deal last May, calling it a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, Temple has taken steps to more fully integrate Fox Chase with Temple University Hospital.

Temple’s Fox Chase Cancer Center, which is next door to Jeanes Hospital, is nearly in Montgomery County, and is less than five miles north of Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

Temple executives said they expected to complete the purchase by the end of June. Young said Temple has not yet specified what services it will offer at the 74-bed hospital at 1331 E. Wyoming Ave, the former Parkview Hospital, which Tenet Healthcare Corp. sold for $5.14 million in 2004.

Cancer Treatment Centers of America said at the time that it would invest $44 million in the facility. The company has additional cancer hospitals in Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, and Tulsa, Okla.

The departure of Cancer Treatment Centers from the Philadelphia market leaves Fox Chase, Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper as the region’s major cancer-care providers.

Redeemer Health, formerly Holy Redeemer Health System, recently turned over its cancer program to Cooper.