ChesPenn Health Services in Chester has been seeing a steady flow of new patients following Crozer Health’s closure last year, but obstetrics remains a challenge, writes Harold Brubaker for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
With Crozer Health going out of business, Chester lost many services that were serving its residents for generations.
“We lost the emergency room, we lost trauma, we lost the burn unit, we lost specialty services, but we did not lose primary care,” said Susan Harris-McGovern, president and CEO of ChesPenn Health Services, which also has a clinic in Upper Darby.
With 10 doctors, nurse practitioners, and dentists on staff in Chester, ChesPenn operates as a nonprofit federally qualified health center that offers a sliding fee scale for uninsured patients.
In the past, physicians delivering at Crozer-Chester Medical Center handled routine maternity care at ChesPenn. Now, patients often have to seek care elsewhere, as securing delivery locations for those at ChesPenn is a challenge.
Transportation is a significant barrier. Main Line Health’s Riddle Hospital in Media is nearby, “but there’s no direct path for our patients for OB to have access to care,” said Harris-McGovern.
Read more about ChesPenn Health Services in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
