Staff members mark end of Crozer Health with sendoff

There were lots of hugs being given and group selfies being taken in the parking lot across from Crozer-Chester Medical Center Friday as colleagues said goodbye to each other and to the legacy that once was.

As of Friday, most services, including the emergency rooms, at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital were closed after a Texas bankruptcy judge approved Prospect Medical Holding’s request for an expedited closure of the two Crozer Health facilities. About 2,600 people are anticipated to be laid off as a result.

Many at the tailgate Friday wore shirts featuring a red line going flat, with the words, “Crozer Health, End of Watch, 5/2/2025”.

Sharon Sponheimer, an admissions nurse who served there for 25 years, said she wanted to add to it, “Cause of Death: Corporate Greed.”

Reminiscing was par for the course as music played and chairs were set out.

Sharon Knesiak recalled entering the two-year Crozer radiology program in 1983.

“I got hired right after the program and worked as an X-ray tech and never left because it’s such a great place to work,” she said.

A proud tradition

Knesiak noted the reputation it once had.

“People would say, ‘Wow! You work at Crozer?” she said. “If you lived in Delaware County and you worked at Crozer Hospital, you were set for life.”

September would have marked her 40th anniversary there.

“We served so many people in this community that I always felt that I was truly helping someone,” Knesiak said. “That’s really what kept me here — the family feeling. Everybody knew everyone. They still do.”

She even inspired her daughter Lizzie Brees, who was born at Crozer-Chester Medical Center to work there, too.

“She was the reason I got into the hospital work,” the social worker said. “I loved coming here and watching her work on Bring Your Child to Work’ Day.”

Patient care tech Tina Hudson wore a different T-shirt, flipping the bird to Prospect.

“It’s like a roller coaster,” she said of the emotional challenges of losing a job. “I’m going to miss the patients. That’s why I’m taking pictures, I’m taking the family.”

Her friend and fellow patient care tech, Karen Miller, had worked there 25 years.

I lost my daughter in March,” she said of 26-year-old Da-miyah Campbell. “She had cerebral palsy. To lose my daughter, to lose my job, it’s hard.”

Miller recalled the staff doing a donor’s walk in her daughter’s honor because she donated her organs. She also recalled her death in the intensive care unit of the same hospital where she worked.

“We went back there to touch her before she …,” Miller’s voice trailed, unable to finish.

Over on the helipad, some took pictures with friends before being chased off by security.

Sponheimer was there with Joanne Laudeman and Maggie Coates.

“I came here for three years. That’s what I said when I came,” she said. She was there for 25.

“What was so wonderful is you could transfer between departments and get in the job and have a new experience and that’s exactly what we did,” Sponheimer said. “Then, we ended with our awesome job of admission discharge nurses. We got to meet all the patients as they came in.”

Even after having lost her job, her focus remained on the patients.

“It’s so sad,” Sponheimer said. “There’s so many people I was like, ‘I’ve gotta take them home. They’re going to die. I’ve gotta help them.’”

Knesiak had a similar sentiment.

“It’s sad,” she said, noting her last interactions with patients. “People asking: “Where am I going to go? Who’s going to be my doctor?’ It’s sad. You can see the fear in their faces.”

Like a family

Laudeman, who had been at Crozer-Chester 34 years, said she was going to remember the friendships forged there.

“We always said it wasn’t just a job, it was a family,” she said.

Although Cindy Cornog retired in August after 34 years as a respiratory therapist, she came back for the day.

“I loved all my co-workers,” she said. “It was a great hospital. Crozer Health was the place to be and Prospect ruined it, unfortunately. It’s a sad day … I worked with all these people my whole career. They’re like my family and I feel bad for everybody that’s got to go out and look for new jobs again and start over.”

She felt bad for all those impacted by the hospitals closures.

“It’s a sad day for all the employees, even more sad for the community and all the people that aren’t going to have the care they need,” Cornog said. “It sucks.”

At the tailgate, Chester native Karen Strickland, owner of CAKESbyK, was handing out 300 cupcakes to the Crozer employees.

“This is a donation from my company to Crozer employees just to cheer ‘em up,” Strickland said. “Something sweet always put a smile on your face.”

Chester Councilwoman Tameka Gibson was helping her.

“It’s something that never should have happened,” she said of the hospital closure. “In my opinion, Prospect Medical Holdings needs to be brought up on charges for the things that they’ve done. It’s criminal.”

She confirmed that a little over a week ago, a person had been shot in Chester and instead of Crozer-Chester, they were taken to Lankenau Hospital, where they died.

“It’s sad,” Gibson said. “It’s sad.”

She remembered being on the lifesaving end of the Crozer-Chester team’s talent and skills. In 2015, she had a brain aneurysm and was taken to the trauma center, where she was airlifted to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

“It was that quick thinking, it was that dedication to making sure that I stayed alive and I did,” Gibson said.

And now, in addition to the medical challenges, the city faces the loss of tax income by the hospital closure and the impact it will have on businesses.

Tough times ahead

Some warned of the difficult times ahead.

Sherita Johnson is a member of the Health Information Management team, handling the release of the Crozer Health medical records.

“We’re going to be here until they shut the lights out,” she said. “This is dedication right here.”

Johnson shared what Friday meant to her.

“Heartache and pain but not just for us, but for the community,” she said. “I’m not going to lie. Beneath it all, there’s some anger.”

However, she said she’ll finish her job — not for Prospect but for the people she loves.

“Despite what we know is going on, nobody has walked out,” Johnson said. “They’re there till the end. It’s the dedication. Right now, it’s not about the hospital. We know it’s closing. It’s about the community while we’re still here. We love this community.”

She and her co-workers, like others, had decades of service working at Crozer and family members who had worked there too. Her grandmother LaVerne Miller worked there and eventually died there.

Team member Joseph Harper, who worked there 44 years, said his family had worked for Crozer Health for 85 years.

He expressed concern about a horizon without these hospitals.

“The community doesn’t realize what’s coming,” Harper said. “The worst is yet to come. It really is.”