Riddle Hospital receives $4M in state funding to expand healthcare access in Delaware County
Riddle Hospital and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital have seen an influx of patients after Crozer Health closed last year.
Two Delaware County hospitals are getting $6 million in additional funding to help them address a sharp increase in patients after Crozer Health, the county’s largest hospital and busiest emergency department, closed last year.
About $5 million of the funding had previously been allocated to Crozer Health under a program that supports hospitals that care for a high portion of low-income patients with Medicaid. About $3 million of that money was redistributed to Riddle Hospital in Media; Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby $2 million. Local lawmakers secured an additional $1 million for Riddle.
“They really have stepped up to fill a big void, and we want to make sure they have the resources they need,” said Rep. Lisa Borowski, a Delaware County Democrat.
The additional funding will allow Riddle, part of the nonprofit Main Line Health system, to hire more staff, said Ed Jimenez, Main Line Health’s CEO.
When there aren’t enough nurses or other clinicians to cover the hospital’s needs, Riddle has had to turn to staffing agencies, which charge three-to-four times the rate Main Line pays staff providers, he said.
Main Line executives and local lawmakers marked the funding announcement at Riddle Wednesday with a check presentation ceremony and roundtable discussion about ongoing regional healthcare challenges.
Rep. Gina Curry, a Delaware County Democrat, urged hospital executives to continue trying to connect with patients who may be without doctors after Crozer was closed by its bankrupt for-profit owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, based in California.
Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland and its sister hospital, Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, served a disproportionately low-income population in Chester and other densely populated communities outside Philadelphia with high rates of chronic health problems, such as asthma and heart disease.
“You’re working very hard inside here to try to help, but how are you including the community to let them know that Main Line Health is wrapping around them,” Curry said.