Pottstown Hospital cited for closing its ICU 13 days ahead of schedule
Tower Health, the hospital's owner, announced in November plans to shutter the ICU and other services.
Pottstown Hospital was cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for shuttering intensive care services 13 days before it was scheduled to close the unit.
Tower Health, which owns Pottstown and two other hospitals, announced in November that it was closing Pottstown’s ICU, endoscopy center, and the Pottstown outpost of Tower’s McGlinn Cancer Institute effective Jan. 6. Hospitals are required to give 60 days notice before shuttering services.
The closures were part of a larger downsizing that included laying off 350 workers.
Tower officials said they closed the unit 13 days ahead of schedule on Dec. 24 because they did not have enough remaining nurses on staff to safely operate.
“Safe ICU care requires appropriate nurse staffing, and operating the unit under those conditions could have compromised the high-quality care our patients deserve,” Tower said in a statement.
Pottstown had already limited admissions to the unit to four patients, and began transferring remaining patients to other intensive care facilities on Dec. 22, according to the health department inspection report.
The hospital’s other services remain open.
Tower reported an operating loss of $16 million in the first six months of fiscal 2026.