There has been an exodus of surgery residents from Crozer Chester Medical Center over accreditation uncertainties, writes Harold Brubaker for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Nine of 15 doctors in training planned to leave the general surgery residency program as of Wednesday, concerned their work from January through June won’t count toward their educational requirements if a decision to withdraw accreditation stands.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) decided to withdraw the program’s accreditation in January. The program is still open for now.

Among the 31 issues cited were a lack of sufficient surgical volume at the facility and allegations that the case logs for residents were fraudulent.

Crozer Health appealed the ACGME decision.

If it loses the appeal, the loss of accreditation would be retroactive to Jan. 30.

That has triggered a “rush to the exits,” according to a lawsuit filed and then withdrawn by Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., the for-profit that owns Crozer Health.’

The suit argued that the loss of resident services could force Crozer Chester Medical Center to divert patients to other hospitals and disrupt normal hospital service.

It could also hurt the sale of the Crozer Health system to a potential nonprofit, a process now underway.

Read more about the accreditation issue and how Crozer is responding in The Philadelphia Inquirer.